Qualitative and quantitative analysis of sildenafil in traditional medicines and dietary supplements

Abstract

Objective: Use of traditional medicines as aphrodisiac and sex stimulant products is a common phenomenon worldwide as well as in our country. In addition to that, in the name of dietary supplements, a number of urban people are using these items as the source of their sex potential. These products ought to be responsible for raising several sexual violence and perversion in the society. That's why these products need to be tested whether they contain only natural ingredients or any other allopathic active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Methods:High performance liquid chromatography was carried out using a C18 column with a mobile phase composed of (diluted sulfuric acid:acetonitrile=60:40) and detected at the wavelength of 290nm. Presence of sildenafil in the identified products was further confirmed by infrared (IR) spectroscopy. Results:In the study, found that 5 out of 25 traditional medicines and 7 out of 10 dietary supplements contain sildenafil. In addition to that 4 out of total 35 samples were found to contain sildenafil that was exceeding the highest dose (100mg per dosage unit) recommended by the manufacturer (Pfizer,UK) of the brand product ViagraTM. Notably noneof the samples were labelled to contain sildenafil. Conclusion:About 35% of the market samples were adulterated with sildenafil. The developed method is simple, precise, specific, accurate, robust, and cost-effective. Hence it can be used for qualitative and quantitative analysis of sildenafil in falsified market products.