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Abstract
An ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC–MS/MS) method for simultaneous determination of 10 mycotoxins in grain was developed. The selected mycotoxins were: deoxynivalenol, 3-acetyldeoxynivalenol, 15-acetyldeoxynivalenol, nivalenol, fusarenon X, moniliformin, zearalenone, zearalanone, ochratoxin A and ochratoxin B. The samples were extracted with aqueous acetonitrile (84 : 16, v/v) and purified by reliable laboratory-made mixed cartridges. The analytes were separated on an Acquity UPLC HSS T3 column (100 × 2.1 mm, 1.8 µm) and eluted with a mobile phase of water containing 0.2% aqueous ammonia and acetonitrile/methanol (90 : 10, v/v). All mycotoxins were detected with a Waters Micromass Quattro Ultima Pt tandem quadrupole mass spectrometer operating in negative electrospray ionization using multiple reaction monitoring mode. Accurate determination was achieved by employing commercial 13C15-deoxynivalenol as internal standard, which compensated for target loss and eliminated matrix effects. The established method was further validated by determining the linearity (R 2 > 0.9990), average recovery (75.8–106.5%), sensitivity (limit of quantitation 0.09–8.48 µg kg−1) and precision (relative standard deviation ≤ 6.9%). It was shown to be a suitable method for simultaneous determination of 10 mycotoxins in grain. Finally, a total of 69 corn samples randomly collected from eastern and northern China were analyzed. The results showed that deoxynivalenol was the most frequently detected contaminant, whilst 3-acetyldeoxynivalenol, 15-acetyldeoxynivalenol, nivalenol, zearalenone, zearalanone, fusarenon X and moniliformin also occurred frequently. Ochratoxin A and ochratoxin B were present only in trace amounts in a small number of samples.