The presence of a sildenafil derivative, the thiosildenafil, in an herbal product has been evidenced first by HPTLC and later determined by isolation and analysis of spectroscopic data. The analyzed product is nowadays marketed as dietary supplement containing herbal extracts and claimed for male and female sexual improvement. This report is noteworthy since it is clear that adulterated materials can cause serious health problems if they are consumed as herbal “natural” products, generally considered deprived of toxicity by the consumers. The use of a simple and reliable method, based on HPTLC, to determine synthetic adulterations is reported in this paper.
BalayssacS., TrefiS., GilardV., Malet-MartinoM., MartinoR., DelsucM-A. (2009) 2D and 3D DOSY 1H NMR, a useful tool for analysis of complex mixtures: Application to herbal drugs or dietary supplements for erectile dysfunction. Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis, 50, 602–612.
2.
Blok-TipL., ZomerB., BakkerF., HartogK.D., HamzinkM., ten HoveJ., VredenbregtM., de KasteD. (2004) Structure elucidation of sildenafil analogues in herbal products. Food Additives and Contamination, 21, 737–748.
3.
SinghS., PrasadB., SavaliyaA.A., ShahR.P., GohilV.M., KaurA. (2009) Strategies for characterizing sildenafil, vardenafil, tadalafil and their analogues in herbal dietary supplements, and detecting counterfeit products containing these drugs. Trends in Analytical Chemistry, 28, 13–26.
4.
DaraghmehN., Al-OmariM., BadwanA.A., JaberA.M.Y. (2001) Determination of sildenafil citrate and related substances in the commercial products and tablet dosage form using HPLC. Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis, 25, 483–491.
5.
WawerI., PisklakM., ChilmonczykZ. (2005) 1H, 13C, 15N NMR analysis of sildenafil base and citrate (Viagra) in solution, solid state and pharmaceutical dosage forms. Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis, 38, 865–870.
6.
ParkH.J., JeongH.K., ChangM.I., IMM.H., JeongJ.Y., ChoiD.M., ParkK., HongM.K., YoumJ., HanS.B., KimD.J., ParkJ.H., KwonS.W. (2007) Structure determination of new analogues of verdenafil and sildenafil in dietary supplements. Food Additives and Contaminations, 24, 122–129.
7.
TrefiS., GilardV., BalayssacS., Malet-MartinoM., MartinoR. (2009) The usefulness of 2D DOSY and 3D DOSY-COSY 1H NMR for mixture analysis: application to genuine and fake formulations of sildenafil (Viagra). Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry, 47, S163–173.
