Determination of 7 Mycotoxin Contaminants in Spices by Ultra-high Performance Liquid Chromatography-tandem Mass Spectrometry

A method was developed for the determination of 7 mycotoxins in spices by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tendem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). Selection of spices in chili, pepper and star anise for the study, smashed samples were extracted with 70% methanol water solution, purified by multifunction immunological affinity column, isolated by ACQUITY UPLC HSS T3 chromatographic column, determined by ultra-efficient liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. The mass spectrometry was conducted by using positive (ESI⁺) electrospray ionization and multi-reactions monitoring (MRM) models, with external standard method. The results indicated that 7 mycotoxins had good linear relationship, correlation coefficient were not less than 0.995, and the limit of quantitation (LOQ) for the range from 0.5 to 20 μg/kg. The average recovery rates at three levels of adding external standard were from 67.25% to 113.47%, with a relative standard deviation (RSD) varying from 1.07% to 10.20%. The method had simple process, good purification effect and the advantages of high sensitivity and high throughput detection, suitable for spices in multicomponent separation and detection of mycotoxin residues.