Chemical Characterization of an Emerging Designer Steroid, 6‐Bromo‐androst‐4‐en‐3,17‐dione, via NMR and LC‐HRMS and GC‐HRMS

A package of raw material, deliberately mislabelled as a muscle-building supplement, was obtained online to contain an unknown steroid. In order to accurately identify the composition of the substance, we used a combination of advanced techniques: liquid and gas chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry (GC-HRMS and LC-HRMS), alongside nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. By combining the strengths of these methods, we successfully identified the compound as 6-Bromo-androst-4-en-3,17-dione (6-BrAED). This substance is a designer steroid of testosterone that is not currently on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) prohibited list. As it is unlisted, there is a serious hidden risk that athletes could take it by accident through contaminated supplements.