Simultaneous determination of type-A and type-B trichothecenes in rice by UPLC-MS/MS

Abstract

A reliable and sensitive ultra-high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method for the simultaneous determination of 5 trichothecenes (deoxynivalenol, 3-acetyldeoxynivalenol, 15-acetyldeoxynivalenol, T-2 toxin, HT-2 toxin) in rice was developed. These target analytes were extracted by acetonitrile/water (84 : 16, v/v), and further purified with solid phase extraction Oasis HLB cartridge. In spiked samples, the mean recoveries ranged from 71.2–102.5% with intra-day and inter-day coefficients of variation less than 11.7 and 12.9%, respectively. Limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) were in the range of 0.2–3 μg kg⁻¹ and 0.5–10 μg kg⁻¹, respectively. The results illustrate that this sensitive procedure is applicable for the determination of these trichothecenes in rice.