Abstract
A high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method has been developed for the determination of ochratoxin A (OTA) in human blood serum. Samples were purified on a C18 solid phase extraction column. The developed method required a relatively low serum volume (0.5 ml). Significant correlation (r of 0.998) was found over the range from 0.10 to 8 ng/ml, with a detection limit of 0.1 ng/ml and better performance in terms of precision and accuracy. Mean recoveries at 0.5 and 2 ng/ml were respectively 69.7±1.2 and 71.9±2.8%. This method was used as a rapid and noninvasive tool to assess human exposure to OTA. Among 40 analyzed serum samples, 27.5% were found to contain OTA with levels going from 0.1 to 11.98 ng/ml with a mean concentration of 0.73±2.35 ng/ml.
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