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Determination of 2-alkylcyclobutanones by combining precolumn derivatization with 1-naphthalenyl hydrazine and ultra-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection

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Abstract

2-Alkylcyclobutanones (2-ACBs) are uniquely formed when triglycerides-containing food products are exposed to ionizing radiation. Thus, 2-ACBs have been used as marker molecules to identify irradiated food. Most methods to determine 2-ACBs involve mass spectrometric detection after chromatographic separation. The spectrofluorometer is rarely used to determine 2-ACBs because these molecules do not fluoresce. In this study, we developed an ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) method to determine 2-ACBs. 2-ACBs were converted into fluorophores after reacting with 1-naphthalenyl hydrazine to facilitate their sensitive and selective detection using a fluorescence detector (FLD). Analysis of 2-ACBs using our developed UPLC-FLD method allows sensitive determination of 2-ACBs at a detection limit of 2 ng 2-ACBs per g of fat (30 pg/injection), which is significantly lower than that of existing analytical methods. After validation for trueness and precision, the method was applied to γ-irradiated chicken samples to determine their 2-ACB content. Comparative studies employing liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric method revealed no systematic difference between the two methods, thereby demonstrating that the proposed UPLC-FLD method can be suitably used to determine 2-ACBs in irradiated foodstuffs.

Determination of radiation-induced food-borne 2-dodecylcyclobutanone and 2-tetradecylcyclobutanone by combining 1-naphthalenyl hydrazine derivatization and ultra-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Professor Jianzhen YU (Department of Chemistry, HKUST) for providing the fluorescence detector for the UPLC analysis. The authors extend their thanks to AB SCIEX for providing the UPLC system for this study.

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21305022). X.M. thanks the Bai Xian Asian Future Leaders Scholarship Program for providing a Postgraduate Studentship. W.C. thanks the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology for providing a Startup Funding (grant R9310).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Academic Building, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Xiangpeng Meng & Wan Chan

  2. Key Laboratory of Combinatorial Biosynthesis and Drug Discovery, Ministry of Education, and School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuchang District, Wuhan, Hubei, 430071, China

    Tong Tong & Lianrong Wang

  3. Chinese Academy of Inspection and Quarantine, Gaobeidian North Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100123, China

    Hanxia Liu

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  1. Xiangpeng Meng
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  2. Tong Tong
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  3. Lianrong Wang
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  4. Hanxia Liu
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  5. Wan Chan
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Correspondence to Wan Chan.

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Meng, X., Tong, T., Wang, L. et al. Determination of 2-alkylcyclobutanones by combining precolumn derivatization with 1-naphthalenyl hydrazine and ultra-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection. Anal Bioanal Chem 408, 3707–3714 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-016-9455-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-016-9455-6

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