A simple HPLC-MS/MS method for the analysis of multi-mycotoxins in betel nut

Abstract

Mycotoxins are naturally occurring toxins produced by certain molds and can be found in nuts, cereals, fruits, and oils. Furthermore, current food processing systems cannot wholly remove mycotoxins. The adverse health effects of chewing betel nut containing mycotoxins range from long-term consequences such as immune deficiency. In this study, a rapid solid-phase extraction (SPE) method to LC-MS/MS system was developed to determine nine mycotoxins in commonly used five types of betel nut products. The SPE eluate was injected into a Phenomenex UHPLC Kinetex Polar C18 Column (2.1 x 100 mm, 2.6 mm) and detected by an Agilent 6470 triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer. All mycotoxins were separated under 6.8 min with electrospray ionization in multiple reaction monitoring modes. The calibration curves ranged from 0.5 to 600 ng/mL (r2>0.99), LOQ values were between 0.25 to10 ng/mL, and LOD values were between 5 to 20 ng/mL. All the QCs have shown precision, and the accuracy range for intra-day and inter-day did not exceed 14.3% (RSD) and 91.2 to 117.6% (relative error). The matrix effect and extraction recovery for five types of betel nuts were in the range of 81.5 to 99.2% and 70.1 to 113.9%, respectively (except deoxynivalenol).