Development and validation of an ultra‐performance liquid chromatography method for simultaneous analysis of 20 antihistaminics in dietary supplements

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate an ultra‐performance liquid chromatography method for simultaneous analysis of 20 antihistamines (illegal additives) in dietary supplements. The limits of detection and quantitation of the method ranged from 1.5 to 2.5 µg/mL and from 20.0 to 50.0 µg/mL, respectively. The determination coefficient was >0.999, precisions were 0.2–5.1% (intra‐day) and 0.1–8.8% (inter‐day), and accuracies were 84.5–111.2% (intra‐day) and 91.9–112.0% (inter‐day). The mean recoveries of 20 targeted compounds from dietary supplements ranged from 75.4 to 119.3%. The relative standard deviations were <6.6% and complied with established international guidelines. The relative standard deviation of stability was <0.8%. Fifty‐two commercially available dietary supplements were evaluated using this method, and were found to have none of the 20 antihistamines in significant abundance. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.