Screening of Dietary Supplements by ASAP® Compact Mass Spectrometry

Introduction

Americans spend nearly $4 billion a year on diet and weight loss supplements. While distributors are largely regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, there are still products on the market that have versions of banned substances, or products that are still being sold months after recall.

Two dietary supplements for analysis (DMBA is 1, 3-dimethyl butylamine, a ‘chemical cousin’ to DMAA and believed to have similar effects, but not studied in humans. It is now very common in supplements and is promoted for weight loss, memory enhancement and as a sports performance supplement).

In this application note, we demonstrate the use of the Advion expression^L CMS with an atmospheric solids analysis probe (ASAP) ion source to analyze two supplements (figure 1) that contain DMBA, a synthetic stimulant that has not been tested on humans. The substance is the chemical cousin to drug DBAA, which is currently banned by the US FDA. The efficacy and safety of DMBA is entirely unknown, yet it is present in many supplements. This technique demonstrates the ability for the CMS to rapidly test for and detect DMBA, as well as other ingredients including caffeine and niacin, in less than 30 seconds per sample.

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