Abstract
A fast and reliable ultra-high performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry method was developed for the determination of aflatoxins B1, B2, G1, and G2 in cereal. The analytes were extracted by accelerated solvent extraction with methanol/water (80:20). A polymeric solid-phase extraction column was used for sample preparation. Under optimum conditions, the analyte recoveries for samples spiked at different concentration levels in rice and maize ranged from 71.2 to 94.0%, with relative standard deviations less than 16.4%. Limits of detection (signal-to-noise ratio, 3:1) for the aflatoxins ranged from 0.25 to 0.93 ng/g. The developed method was applied to the determination of aflatoxins in ten rice and maize samples. One maize sample tested positive with an aflatoxin B1 concentration of 2.7 ng/g.
Notes
a Retention Time Window.
b Collision Energy, eV.
a Five determinations performed on the same day.
b Five determinations performed over a 3 day period.