A method was developed for the simultaneous determination of 16 mycotoxins in drug and food homologous products by ultra performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) combined with accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) and QuEChERS. The target mycotoxins in drug and food homologous products were extracted by ASE. After concentration, the extracts were purified by QuEChERS. Then, the target compounds were analyzed by UPLC-MS/MS in both positive and negative electrospray ionization and MRM modes. Aflatoxin B1 and fumonisin B1 were quantified by the internal standard method, and the remaining mycotoxins were quantified by the matrix-matched external standard method. The proposed method showed a good linear relationship, with correlation coefficients greater than 0.99. The limits of detection (LODs) and limits of quantification (LOQs) of the 16 mycotoxins ranged from 0.008 μg/kg to 0.3 μg/kg and from 0.03 μg/kg to 1.0 μg/kg, respectively. The blank samples were spiked at three levels, and the recoveries ranged from 70.8% to 118%, with the RSDs being 2.5% to 10.2%. The developed method was successfully applied to mycotoxin analysis in 30 scutellaria, puerarin and sea buckthorn samples bought from local markets. Different levels of mycotoxins were detected in some of the products. The proposed method is simple, rapid and sensitive, and it can be applied to the simultaneous determination of multi-mycotoxins in drug and food homologous products.
Keywords: QuEChERS; accelerated solvent extraction (ASE); drug and food homologous products; mycotoxins; ultra performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS).