Simultaneous determination of 8 biogenic amines in honey by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

An ultra-high performance liquid chromatographic tandem mass spectrometry analysis with derivatization method was developed for the simultaneous determination of 8 biogenic amines(BAs)in honey which were tryptamine(TR),phenylethylamine(PHE),cadaverine(CAD),histamine(HIS),tyramine(TYR),putrescine(PUT),spermidine(SPD),spermine(SP). The honey samples were extracted by 5% trichloroacetic acid,derived with dansyl chloride. The BAs were separated on Agilent Poroshell 120 SB-C₁₈(50 mm×2.1 mm,2.7 μm)column,and the mobile phase consisting of 0.1%(v/v)aqueous formic acid(A)and ACN with 0.1% formic acid(B)were used for qualitative and quantitative analysis. 22 kinds of commercial honey were detected using the optimized method,the results showed that 8 BAs in different of commercial honey were detected under the method. Phenylethylamine and putrescine were detected in all honey samples,moreover,phenylethylamine was at high average level in honey samples. The correlation coefficients of the calibration curves were more than 0.99,the limits of detections(LODs)were 0.01~0.51 μg/L for the 8 BAs. The recoveries for honey fortified with 8 BAs at levels of 100,500,1000 μg/kg were 76%~112%,the RSD values for the intra-day and inter-day precisions were less than or equal to 9.8% and 13.1% respectively. The present method has advantages such as simplicity,sensitivity and accurately and could be applied to the detection of BAs in honey.