Gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric determination of natural profiles of androgens, progestogens, and glucocorticoids in muscle tissue of male cattle

A rapid and economical method was developed for the simultaneous determination of androgens, progestogens, and glucocorticoids and their precursors and metabolites in meat. Steroids were isolated with liquid extraction followed by C-18-solid-phase extraction (C-18-SPE). Corticoids were separated from the less polar steroids by Si-SPE. The non-polar steroids required additional purification by filtration through an NH2 cartridge. The fractions were combined and derivatized with a universally applicable trimethylsilylation of both hydroxyl and keto groups. Determination was performed with gas chromatography-mass selective detection (determination limits: 0.02-0.1 mu g/kg). Hormone profiles of 15 muscle tissue samples of both bulls and steers were analysed. Beef from bulls contained higher concentrations of testosterone and epitestosterone (P<0.001), 11-deoxycorticosterone (P<0.01), androstenedione (P<0.05) and cortisone (P<0.05), and significantly lower proportions of cortisol (P<0.001) than beef from steers.