Determination of mycotoxins in bee pollen by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

J Agric Food Chem. 2013 Feb 27;61(8):1999-2005. doi: 10.1021/jf400256f. Epub 2013 Feb 18.

Abstract

Bee pollen, promoted as a natural food supplement, is consumed increasingly by people to maintain a healthy diet. Depending on environmental conditions, pollen can also be an optimum medium for growth of molds such as Fusarium and Penicillium . A quick, easy, cheap, rapid, and safe (QuEChERS) extraction procedure followed by a gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) determination of eight selected Fusarium toxins in bee pollen was developed and optimized. Recovery studies at 20, 80, and 1000 μg/kg showed values between 73 and 95% with relative standard deviations (RSDs) of <15% for all studied mycotoxins. Limits of quantitation (LOQ) ranged from 1 to 4 μg/kg. The proposed method was applied to the analysis of 15 commercial samples. Two of 15 samples showed quantifiable values for neosolaniol and nivalenol.

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Bees
  • Dietary Supplements / analysis
  • Food Contamination / analysis*
  • Fusarium / metabolism
  • Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry / methods*
  • Mycotoxins / chemistry*
  • Mycotoxins / metabolism
  • Pollen / chemistry*
  • Pollen / microbiology

Substances

  • Mycotoxins