Determination of synthetic estrogens in illegal veterinary formulations by HPTLC and HPLC.

To determine the actual amount of diethylstilbestrol, hexestrol, and dienestrol in formulations such as pellets and oily injections that are illegally available on the Brazilian market, a simple methanol extraction is used for the analysis of the pellets and an ether extraction with Sephadex columns (for clean-up) is used for the oily injections. High-performance thin-layer chromatography is used for identification (as a qualitative and semiquantitative method), and high-performance liquid chromatography is used for quantitation. The results of the analysis show that all the formulations are not in accordance with the information listed on their labels.