Anabolic steroids in plant medicines for horses

Abstract

After the appearance of steroid contaminations in nutritional supplements for humans a plant essence for the treatment of horses containing anabolic steroids has been made out. However, this product claims to be an alternative to anabolic steroids. Two charges of the oily plant extract (Mexican Cactus Extract) were prepared according to a sample preparation procedure established for anabolic steroids in nutritional supplements for humans. The sample treatment comprised the extraction and purification of the analytes as well as the chemical conversion with N-methyl-N-trimethylsilyltrifluoracetamide (MSTFA) to yield the trimethylsilyl-(TMS)-derivatives of the steroids. The analysis by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) revealed that both samples contained the androgenic anabolic steroids (AAS) stanozolol, 17β-hydroxy-17α-methyt-5α-androstane-3β-ol (5α-THMT) as well as mestanolone without being declared on the label. The concentration of stanozolol which has been identified as the main component of the detected steroids was estimated in the range of 10 μg per ml of the oily plant extract.