A HPTLC method for the determination of the mycotoxin zearalenone in cereal products

An HPTLC method for the quantification of zearalenone (ZEA) in cereals and cereal products (wheat flour and malt) has been developed. ZEA was extracted with 50 ml of acetonitrile-purified water (9+1) with addition of 2 g NaCl. The extracts were further purified on VICAM ZearalaTest((tm)) immunoaffinity columns, then analysed by instrumental high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) on silica gel plates with fluorescence detection. Ethyl acetate - n-hexane (1+1) was used as the mobile phase. The chromatogram was scanned in fluorescence mode after excitation at λ=254 nm with λ=400 nm measuring filter: SENS and SPAN parameters were 195 and 20, respectively. TheR F of ZEA under these conditions was 0.43.The recovery was 95% in the range 15-65 µg/kg cereal products; the mean relative standard deviation of repeatability (RSDr) was 7.6%. The limit of quantification (LoQ) of ZEA was 10 µg/kg. Validation of the method was performed according to the principles of the ICH for pharmaceutical analysis.