MRM chromatograms of sex hormones of 17α-estradiol, 17β-estradiol and estrone in standard solution.

Researchers of the Ningbo Academy of Product Quality Supervision & Inspection and the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics (LICP) of the CAS have developed a new analytical method for simultaneous determination of hormones in egg products. The lipids in extract solution were eliminated by using ZnCl2 depositing and solid-phase extraction clean-up.

This new elimination method of lipids has effectively removed lipids extracted from eggs without any significant loss of sex hormones. Method validation demonstrated good linearity, accuracy, and precision. All analytical performance data were fully satisfactory at the analyte concentrations of interest. The method has been successfully applied in real samples, and it can be used as a rapid screening tool for the determination of hormones in eggs.

Sex hormones were widely used in animal fattening because of their capacity to increase weight gain and to reduce the feed conversion ratio. Much effort has been dedicated to develop analytical methods for monitoring sex hormones in domestic and import animality foods. However, most of the conventional methods are not satisfactory in that they are time-consuming, use large quantities of organic solvents, cost too much and may cause significant loss of some growth hormones in the process of removing the lipids.

The detailed report of the work has been published in Analytica Chimica Acta (Analytica Chimica Acta 678 (2010) 108–116).

Analytica Chimica Acta Paper