Sibutramine in slimming food supplements on the Croatian market determined by validated high-pressure liquid chromatography- electrospray tandem mass spectrometry method

© 2016 National Agricultural and Food Centre (Slovakia) 1 Obesity is a complexed condition, with serious social and psychological dimensions, that affects virtually all age and socioeconomic groups and threatens to overwhelm both developed and develop ing countries. In 1995, there were an estimated 200 million of obese adults worldwide and another 18 million under-five children classified as overweight. As of 2000, the number of obese adults has increased to over 300 million. Overweight and obesity are major risk factors for a number of chronic diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Overweight and obesity, as well as their related non-communicable diseases, are largely preventable [1]. A drug therapy might be considered if obesity persists despite diet, physical exercise and life-style modification. Drugs used as weight loss aid can be divided into two categories, based on their mechanisms of action: appetite suppressants and lipase inhibitors [2]. Sibutramine (sibutramine hydrochloride monohydrate, SIB) and its metabolites (monodesmethylsibutramine and di-desmethylsibutramine; both are more pharmacologically active than sibutramine) share noradrenalin and serotonin reuptake inhibition and secondary receptor modification effects, such as down-regulation of β-adrenoceptors that were common among effective antidepressants of the time. Increasing the levels of noradrenalin and serotonin in the brain helps patients to feel full after eating and reduce their food intake [3, 4]. Based on the data from the sibutramine cardiovascular outcomes trial [5] in 2010, SIB was removed from European marSibutramine in slimming food supplements on the Croatian market determined by validated high-pressure liquid chromatographyelectrospray tandem mass spectrometry method