BSA-based sample clean-up columns for ochratoxin A determination in wine: Method development and validation

Area of Science:

• Food Chemistry
• Analytical Chemistry
• Biochemistry

Background:

• Mycotoxin control in food relies on analytical chromatography, often requiring expensive immunoaffinity clean-up.
• Bovine serum albumin (BSA) exhibits stable binding affinity for certain mycotoxins, presenting a potentially cheaper alternative receptor.
• The wide availability of BSA makes it an attractive option for developing economical sample preparation techniques.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel solid-phase extraction (SPE) method using BSA-immobilized agarose beads for ochratoxin A (OTA) quantification in wine.
• To evaluate the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of BSA-agarose SPE compared to traditional immunoaffinity methods.
• To establish the analytical performance characteristics of the developed BSA-agarose SPE method for OTA detection.

Main Methods:

• BSA was immobilized onto agarose beads to create custom SPE columns.
• The BSA-agarose columns were used to extract OTA from diluted red wine samples (4-fold dilution in 0.1 M Tris, pH 8.0).
• Quantification of OTA was performed using analytical chromatographic techniques, and results were compared with commercial immunoaffinity columns.

Main Results:

• The BSA-agarose SPE method demonstrated efficient extraction of OTA from red wine.
• The method exhibited excellent linearity (R² = 0.9999) over the concentration range of 0.05 to 3.0 μg/L.
• High recovery rates (>98%) and low limits of detection (0.017 μg/L) and quantification (0.051 μg/L) were achieved.
• Results obtained using the BSA-agarose method showed agreement with those from commercial immunoaffinity columns.

Conclusions:

• BSA-immobilized agarose beads provide a viable and cost-effective alternative for mycotoxin sample clean-up.
• This novel SPE method enables accurate and efficient quantification of OTA in wine.
• The developed method holds promise for routine mycotoxin analysis in the food industry, reducing reliance on expensive commercial kits.