Determination of anabolic steroids in pharmaceuticals by liquid chromatography with a microemulsion of sodium dodecyl sulfate and pentanol as mobile phase

The Chromatographic behaviour of fourteen anabolic steroids using micellar mobile phases has been studied. Anabolic steroids are strongly associated with the non-modified alkyl chains of the C18 stationary phase. However, appropriate retention times were obtained with a microemulsion of 0.1 M sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and 7% pentanol as mobile phase (capacity factors, k′ < 14). A Chromatographic procedure for the determination of anabolic steroids in pharmaceuticals is proposed. The sample preparation step is simple, since the pharmaceuticals were easily dissolved in the SDS medium. The accompanying compounds were eluted at the head of the chromatogram due to the large eluent strength of the mobile phase. The values found usually agreed with those declared by the manufacturers and were reproducible.