Determination of clenbuterol in urine as its cyclic boronate derivative by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

A rapid and reliable gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric method for the determination of clenbuterol in urine is described. Penbutolol was used as internal standard. Four derivatization procedures have been tested, of which 1-butaneboronic acid gave the best results. The method includes extraction of the alkalinized urine (3 ml) with tert.-butyl methyl ether-n-butanol (9:1), derivatization with 1-butaneboronic acid (15 min at room temperature), and analysis in the selected-ion monitoring mode of the derivatives of clenbuterol at m/z 243, 327 and 342 and of penbutolol at m/z 342 and 357. The detection limit is 0.5 ng/ml and the recovery better than 90%.