Isolation and structural characterization of a novel sibutramine analogue, chlorosipentramine, in a slimming dietary supplement, by using HPLC-PDA, LC-Q-TOF/MS, FT-IR, and NMR.

A novel sibutramine analogue was detected in a slimming formula by high performance liquid chromatography with a photo diode detector array (HPLC-PDA). The unknown compound exhibited an ultraviolet (UV) spectrum that was similar to that of chlorosibutramine, despite having a different HPLC retention time. Further analysis of the slimming formula by LC-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-Q-TOF/MS) showed that the unknown compound had the formula C18H27Cl2N. To elucidate the structure of this new sibutramine analogue, the target compound in the slimming formula was isolated on a preparative-LC system equipped with a PDA. After analysis by fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, the unknown compound was identified as a sibutramine analogue in which the iso-butyl group on the side chain is replaced with an iso-pentyl group. This new sibutramine analogue was identified to be 1-(1-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)cyclobutyl)-N,N,4-trimethylpentan-1-amine and has been named as chlorosipentramine.