Determination of aflatoxins in peanut products using reverse phase HPLC

A high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method is described for the determination of the four major aflatoxins, B1, B2, G1 and G2, in peanut products. The aflatoxins are extracted by adapting a procedure developed by Pons (1) at the SRRC, USDA, and quantitated utilizing a new 5 mum reverse-phase column with NaCl/acetontrile/methanol mobile phase (3 + 1 + 1). The 5 mum column achieved baseline resolution of each of the four aflatoxins. Retention times and peak heights were reproducible. The procedure was successfully applied to several types of peanut products and was applicable to both roasted and unroasted peanuts, which is a decided advantage over the current CB and BF extraction methods. Additionally, it can be used for sweetened peanut matrixes with no interferences in the chromatography. The total time required for sample preparation and aflatoxin determination is less than 1.5 hours.