Influences of musk administration on the doping test

•Large diversities existed in the concentrations and δ13C-values of musk steroids.•Steroids in some musk had δ13C-values in the range of endogenous steroids in human.•It is the first report of the musk which can not detected by IRMS in doping control.•The administration of 100 mg musk did not lead to the adverse analytical finding.

Musk is widely used as a traditional drug in Asia for the treatment of stroke, tumour, and cardiopathy with an oral dosage of 0.03–0.1 g per day. Because of the potential anabolic effect, musk preparations have been included in the list of medical products containing prohibited substances employed for doping. The application of musk pod formulation was regarded as the reason of some adverse analytical findings in the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup. In order to investigate the influence of musk administration on the doping test, we executed a chemical analysis and excretion study. The gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analysis demonstrated the diversity of steroid concentrations in musk samples. Furthermore, the δ13C-values of steroids from wild deer musk showed more depleted than those of domestic deer musk by gas chromatography/combustion/isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC/C/IRMS) analysis. Because the steroids from some musk had δ13C-values in the range of naturally produced steroids in human body, the possible abuse of this kind of musk is very hard to be detected by isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) in doping control. Musk grains from wild and domestic deer were administrated for the excretion study respectively. Spot urine samples were collected from two male volunteers before and after 100 mg musk grains administration. The profiles and carbon isotope ratios of urinary steroids were determined by GC–MS and GC/C/IRMS. The ingestion of either wild or domestic deer musk did not lead to the adverse analytical finding of doping control in the single dosage of 100 mg.