Extracting mycotoxins from edible vegetable oils by using green, ecofriendly deep eutectic solvents

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Food Safety
• Green Chemistry

Background:

• Mycotoxins in edible oils pose significant food safety risks.
• Traditional methods for mycotoxin analysis often involve hazardous solvents and complex procedures.
• There is a need for efficient, environmentally friendly analytical techniques for mycotoxin determination.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate an environmentally friendly liquid-liquid microextraction method for simultaneous mycotoxin determination in edible vegetable oils.
• To utilize a natural deep eutectic solvent (NADES) for enhanced extraction efficiency.
• To apply a chemometric approach for optimizing extraction parameters.

Main Methods:

• Development of a liquid-liquid microextraction technique using a natural deep eutectic solvent.
• Simultaneous determination of deoxynivalenol, alternariol, ochratoxin A, and zearalenone.
• Analysis using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) with diode array and fluorescence detection.
• Chemometric analysis to optimize operational parameters for extraction.

Main Results:

• The optimized NADES composition achieved high extraction recoveries for most target mycotoxins (close to 100%).
• The method successfully coextracted four mycotoxins from various edible oils without hazardous solvents or clean-up steps.
• Achieved low limits of detection (0.07–300 µg kg⁻¹) with relative standard deviations below 9%.
• Zearalenone recovery was approximately 35%.

Conclusions:

• The proposed method offers an efficient and green alternative for the simultaneous analysis of mycotoxins in edible oils.
• The use of natural deep eutectic solvents simplifies the extraction process and reduces environmental impact.
• The method is validated according to European Commission guidelines, ensuring its reliability for food safety monitoring.