Analysis of zearalenone and α-zearalenol in 100 foods and medicinal plants determined by HPLC-FLD and positive confirmation by LC-MS-MS

• Published in: Journal of the science of food and agriculture Vol. 93; no. 7; pp. 1584 - 1590
• Main Authors: Kong, Wei-Jun, Shen, Hong-Hong, Zhang, Xiao-Fei, Yang, Xiao-Li, Qiu, Feng, Ou-yang, Zhen, Yang, Mei-Hua
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 01.05.2013
• Subjects: Chromatography - methods; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid - methods; Coix; Diet; Drugs, Chinese Herbal - chemistry; Fluorescence; Food Contamination - analysis; foods and medicinal plants; HPLC-FLD; Humans; LC-MS-MS; Limit of Detection; Mass Spectrometry - methods; Plants, Edible - chemistry; Plants, Medicinal - chemistry; zearalenone; Zearalenone - analysis; Zeranol - analogs & derivatives; Zeranol - analysis; α-zearalenol
• ISSN: 0022-5142; 1097-0010
• DOI: 10.1002/jsfa.5926

Background Mycotoxins, which may contaminate many foods and medicinal plants, are poisonous to humans. A high‐performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (HPLC‐FLD) method was successfully developed for analysing the contamination levels of zearalenone (ZON) and its metabolite α‐zearalenol (α‐ZOL) in 100 widely consumed foods and medicinal plants in China. Samples were extracted with methanol–water (80:20, v/v), and cleaned up by using an immunoaffinity column. Results The limits of detection of this developed method for ZON and α‐ZOL were 4 µg kg−1 and 2.5 µg kg−1, respectively. Recoveries for the samples spiked with three levels (30, 60 and 300 µg kg−1 for ZON and α‐ZOL) ranged from 85.8% to 96.1% with relative standard deviation (RSD) of 2.6–7.1% for ZON, and from 89.9% to 98.7% with RSD of 1.9–9.2% for α‐ZOL. Twelve (12%) of these tested samples were contaminated with ZON at levels ranging from 5.3 to 295.8 µg kg−1. The most contaminated samples were Semen coicis, four of them in a concentration level exceeding 60 µg kg−1 ‘maximum level’ (range 68.9–119.6 µg kg−1). Positive samples were further confirmed by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. Conclusion The results suggest that it is necessary to control ZON contamination in medicinal plants, especially Semen coicis. This is a successful study on the analysis of ZON and α‐ZOL in medicinal plants in China by HPLC‐FLD. Immunoaffinity clean‐up and HPLC‐FLD proved to have broad applicability in the field of simultaneously detecting ZON and α‐ZOL in foods and medicinal plants and other complicated matrices.© 2012 Society of Chemical Industry