A greener, quick and comprehensive extraction approach for LC-MS of multiple mycotoxins

In food / feed control mycotoxin analysis is often still performed "one analyte at a time". Here a method is presented which aims at making mycotoxin analysis environmentally friendlier through replacing acetonitrile by ethyl acetate and reducing chemical waste production by analyzing 4 mycotoxins together, forgoing sample extract clean-up, and minimizing solvent consumption. For this, 2 g of test material were suspended in 8 mL water and 16 mL ethyl acetate were added. Extraction was accelerated through sonication for 30 min and subsequent addition of 8 g sodium sulfate. After centrifugation 500 µL supernatant were spiked with isotopologues, dried down, reconstituted in mobile phase, and measured with LC-MS. The method was validated in-house and through a collaborative study and the performance was fit-for-purpose. Repeatability RSDs between 16 % at low and 4 % at higher contaminations were obtained. The reproducibility RSDs were mostly between 12 % and 32 %. The trueness of results for T-2 toxin and Zearalenone were not different from 100 %, for Deoxynivalenol and HT-2 toxin they were larger than 89%. The extraction was also adapted to a quick screening of aflatoxin B1 in maize by flow injection-MS. Semi-quantitative results were obtained through standard addition and scan-based ion ratio calculations. The method proved to be a viable greener and quicker alternative to existing methods.

BREIDBACH Andreas; 

2017-03-17

MDPI AG

JRC106009

2072-6651,   

https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6651/9/3/91,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC106009,   

10.3390/toxins9030091,