Non-targeted study of the thermal degradation of tylosin in honey, water and water:honey mixtures

ABSTRACT

Tylosin A is a macrolide antibiotic used in beekeeping. The aim of the study was to characterise the behaviour of tylosin A in honey after heating and during storage, and to identify its degradation products using a non-targeted approach. In addition, the possibility of a semi-quantification of tylosin B using tylosin A was assessed as a case study for the semi-quantification of degradation products using the parent compounds. The results showed significant degradation of tylosin A in aqueous solution (~96%) as well as in spiked and incurred honey dissolved in water (~50% and ~29%, respectively) after heating at 100°C for 90 min. However, at a lower heating temperature of 70°C, degradation was only observed in water (~31%). When stored at room temperature (27°C) for one year, tylosin A degraded significantly (~47%) in an incurred honey sample. Tylosin B, the only reported degradation product of tylosin A in honey so far, increased significantly in aqueous solution under all treatments, but it only increased in spiked water-honey mixture after heating at 100°C. Two new degradation products, namely 5-O-mycaminosyltylonolide (OMT) and lactenocin, were tentatively identified in water and spiked honey after heating at 100°C. The results of the present study reinforce the conclusion that relying only on the water model or spiked food matrix is not sufficient to understand the thermal degradation of antibiotics in food matrices. Finally, a semi-quantification of tylosin B with a relative error of 20% in an incurred honey sample was possible using the response factor of tylosin A, its parent compound. The results of this study prove that a semi-quantification using the parent compound to quantify its degradation compound can provide satisfactory results, but this will be analyte-dependent.

Graphical abstarct

KEYWORDS:

• Non-targeted analysis
• foodomics
• food safety
• tylosin
• veterinary drugs
• degradation

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Calgary Laboratory of CFIA for providing the incurred honey sample (H4), and Agilent Technologies for their technical support. We wish to acknowledge financial support from the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et Technologies (FRQ-NT NC-198270), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN-2017-04800) and the Canada Foundation for Innovation/John R. Evans Leaders Fund grant (Project #35318) of S. Bayen.

Supplementary material

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Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Canada Foundation for Innovation [Project #35318]; Fonds de Recherche du Québec - Nature et Technologies [FRQ-NT NC-198270]; Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada [RGPIN-2017-04800].