[Rapid analysis of melamine in milk and milk powder using QuEChERS approach coupled with weak cation exchange...

A simple, rapid method for the determination of melamine in milk and milk powder was developed using QuEChERS approach coupled with weak cation exchange chromatography (WCX). The samples were extracted and cleaned-up by medicinal alcohol and lipid adsorbent (LAS) simultaneously, then centrifuged and filtered for high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) analysis. The separation was performed on a WCX column (150 mm x 4.6 mm, 5 microm) with 2 mmol/L KH2 PO4 (pH 3.8) as mobile phase. The flow rate was 1.5 mL/min and the detection wavelength was 208 nm. The injection volume was 20 microL and the column temperature was 30 degrees C. Under the optimized conditions, good linearity was obtained in the range of 0.02-20 mg/L with a correlation coefficient (r2) of 0.999 9. For samples spiked with melamine standard in the range of 1-50 mg/kg, the average recoveries of standard in the milk and milk powder were 98.9%-105.2% and 86.4%-102.9%, respectively. The relative standard deviations were 0.9%-3.4% and 1.5%-6.7%, respectively. The limits of detection (LOD, S/N > or = 3) were 0.05 mg/kg (milk) and 0.1 mg/kg (milk powder). The present method is green due to not use of the toxic organic solvents.