Determination of Sedative and Anesthetic Drug Residues in Aquatic Food Products Using Solid Phase Extraction (SPE) and Liquid Chromatography–Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC–MS/MS)

Abstract

The residues of sedative and anesthetic drugs in aquatic products are an important factor affecting food safety. In order to screen the residues of sedative and anesthesia drugs in aquatic products, a rapid and sensitive method was established using solid phase extraction (SPE) and high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC–MS/MS). The samples were extracted by 80% aqueous acetonitrile by an alumina column and separated by a C₁₈ column. The mass spectra were determined in positive ion mode. The standard curves were matrix matched and quantified by the external standard method. The results showed that the linear ranges of the drugs in aquatic products were from 0.5 to 100 μg kg⁻¹. The correlation coefficient (R²) was greater than 0.990 and the detection limits were between 0.001 and 0.322 μg kg⁻¹. The average recovery rate and relative standard deviation were between 78.64% and 112.15% and from 0.41%-8.26%. Overall, the developed method showed promising results for the simultaneous qualitative and quantitative determination of the drug residues in aquatic products.

Keywords:

• Aquatic products
• high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC–MS/MS)
• high throughput screening
• sedative and anesthetic drugs
• solid phase extraction (SPE)

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that influenced the work reported in this paper.

Data availability statement

The data that support this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Guangxi-Asean Food Inspection and Testing Center Scientific Research Project (grant number KY202103), the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Market Supervision Administration Science and Technology Project (grant number GXSJKJ2021-3) and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Market Supervision Administration Science and Technology Project (grant number GXSJKJ2024-15).