Simultaneous determination of Ltx and Ltxd in cured meat products by LC/MS/MS

Abstract

9,10-Epoxyoctadec-12-enoic acid (Ltx) and 9,10-dihydroxy-12-octadecenoic acid (Ltxd), oxidation products of Linoleic acid, are of biological significance. In this paper, a method was developed for simultaneous determination of Ltx and Ltxd in cured meat products. The analytes were separated by high performance liquid chromatography and detected with tandem mass spectrometry. The method was of satisfactory performances with the quantification limits of 0.64μg/g and 0.025μg/g for Ltx and Ltxd, respectively. The method was employed to detect the analytes in cured meat products, and 21 out 26 samples were found to contain Ltx and Ltxd simultaneously, in ranges of 0.77-6.90μg/g and 0.17-3.93μg/g, respectively. The result also indicated there were isomers of Ltx and Ltxd in samples, and the final amount of Ltxds after ingestion might be much higher than those originally detected in cured meats. More attention should be paid to Ltxs and Ltxds in cured meat products.

Keywords: Cured meat; High performance liquid chromatography; Leukotoxin; Leukotoxin-diol; Linoleic acid; Tandem mass spectrometry.