Simultaneous Determination of 25 Ergot Alkaloids in Cereal Samples by Ultraperformance Liquid Chromatography-Tandem
Qiaozhen Guo1,2, Bing Shao1, Zhenxia Du2
1Beijing Key Laboratory of Diagnostic and Traceability Technologies for Food Poisoning, Beijing Center for Disease Control & Prevention , Beijing 100013, China.
Abstract:
A liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of 25 ergot alkaloids in cereal samples. The analytes included both -ine and -inine ergot alkaloids and were extracted using an acetonitrile and ammonium carbonate solution, followed by purification with C-18 sorbent. After full separation on a C18 column, the 25 ergot alkaloids were detected by LC-MS/MS using multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) in the positive ion mode. The linear range was 0.05-5.0 μg/kg for the 25 ergot alkaloids. The mean recoveries at three spiked concentrations varied from 76.5 to 120% with RSD < 15%. This method was validated using a FAPAS proficiency test sample of ergot alkaloids in rye flour and was finally applied to analyze real samples, including rye flours, wheat flours, whole wheat flours, bread, and noodles.
