Investigation of the potential adulterant sibutramine in some bromelain-containing products, herbal dietary supplements, and teas in the management of weight loss

Herbal food supplement markets growing worldwide seriously threaten consumers' health due to the possible presence of potentially harmful, unreported synthetic substances or the like in the formulations of products. Therefore, supplements' safety may be questioned, as some illegal substances are reported to be adulterated sometimes. Herbal weight loss products have started to be used more widely in the fight against obesity. Still, the ineffective regulation of these products has caused the sale of some products including some harmful substances. It has even been found that adulteration with substances such as sibutramine and its derivatives can cause serious adverse health events, including death. Manufacturers include such synthetic chemicals in formulations because of the high sales expectation by increasing the effect. This thesis is based on analysis with LC-MS/MS technology, a simple but effective approach to precisely identify synthetic compounds in plant-based products of alleged or suspected 'natural' origin. The samples in the form of 4 tea bags, 6 capsules, 4 tablets/effervescent, and 3 powders sold as a helping to weight loss were extracted with 70% methanol. The extracts were lyophilized, and the lyophilized extracts were analyzed. As the interest in weight loss products containing bromelain has increased, preparations containing it have been added to the samples to be tested. Sibutramine, used in treating obesity, was used as a standard in the study. After the confirmation and quantification of the predefined compounds, the preparation of the appropriate standards and analysis results were obtained in LC–MS/MS. According to the analysis results, sibutramine was detected in all samples except the samples determined with Cod 3 and Cod 11 in the products between Cod 1-17. Since corruption still continues in this area, it was concluded that the inspections and controls should be increased.