Development of an Ultrasonication-Assisted Extraction Based HPLC With a Fluorescence Method for Sensitive Determination of Aflatoxins in Highly Acidic Hibiscus sabdariffa

• Published in: Frontiers in pharmacology Vol. 9; p. 284
• Main Authors: Liu, Xiaofei, Ying, Guangyao, Sun, Chaonan, Yang, Meihua, Zhang, Lei, Zhang, Shanshan, Xing, Xiaoyan, Li, Qian, Kong, Weijun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 06.04.2018
• Subjects: aflatoxins; Hibiscus sabdariffa; high acidity; HPLC-FLD; IAC improvement; Pharmacology; ultrasonication-assisted extraction; Hibiscus sabdariffa; high acidity; aflatoxins; IAC improvement; ultrasonication-assisted extraction; HPLC-FLD
• ISSN: 1663-9812; 1663-9812
• DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2018.00284

The high acidity and complex components of have provided major challenges for sensitive determination of trace aflatoxins. In this study, sample pretreatment of was systematically developed for sensitive high performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence detection (HPLC-FLD) after ultrasonication-assisted extraction, immunoaffinity column (IAC) clean-up and on-line post-column photochemical derivatization (PCD). Aflatoxins B , B , G , G were extracted from samples by using methanol/water (70:30, ) with the addition of NaCl. The solutions were diluted 1:8 with 0.1 M phosphate buffer (pH 8.0) to negate the issues of high acidity and matrix interferences. The established method was validated with satisfactory linearity ( > 0.999), sensitivity (limits of detection (LODs) and limits of quantitation (LOQs) of 0.15-0.65 and 0.53-2.18 μg/kg, respectively), precision (RSD <11%), stability (RSD of 0.2-3.6%), and accuracy (recovery rates of 86.0-102.3%), which all met the stipulated analytical requirements. Analysis of 28 samples indicated that one sample incubated with was positive with aflatoxin B (AFB ) at 3.11 μg/kg. The strategy developed in this study also has the potential to reliably extract and sensitively detect more mycotoxins in other complex acidic matrices, such as traditional Chinese medicines, foodstuffs, etc.