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Cleaning Up Vegetable Samples Using a Modified “QuEChERS” Procedure for the Determination of 17 Plant Growth Regulator Residues by Ultra High Performance Liquid Chromatography–Triple Quadrupole Linear Ion Trap Mass Spectrometry

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Abstract

A modified quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe (QuEChERS) sample pretreatment method coupled with ultra high performance liquid chromatography–triple quadrupole linear ion trap mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QTrap-MS/MS) was developed for simultaneous determination of 17 plant growth regulator (PGR) residues in vegetables. Generik ChlorF (GCF) was used as one of the adsorbents in modified QuEChERS procedure, which can selectively remove the chlorophyll of acetonitrile extract without causing the losses of PGRs that have planar structure. To achieve the optimum performance toward the target analytes, extraction solvent, the type of adsorbent, and the amount of the adsorbent were investigated. Under the optimized conditions, good linearities with correlation coefficients (γ) higher than 0.9954 were obtained. The new method provided sufficient sensitivity as reflected by the values of limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ). The LOD varied between 0.01 and 0.70 μg/kg and the LOQ varied between 0.04 and 2.32 μg/kg. Acceptable recoveries ranging from 78.5 to 116.8 % with the relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 0.9–11.9 % were achieved. The evaluated method provided reliable screening, quantification, and identification of 17 PGRs in vegetables.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chongqing Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, Chongqing Engineering Technology, Research Center of Import and Export Food Safety, Chongqing, 400020, China

    Shurui Cao, Cunxian Xi, Bobin Tang, Lei Zhang & Xianliang Li

  2. College of Pharmacy, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, 400016, China

    Xue Zhou & Zhiqiong Chen

  3. College of Food Science and Engineering, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China

    Xiaowen Ding

  4. Sichuan Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, Sichuan Engineering Technology Research, Center of Import and Export Food Safety, Chengdu, 610041, China

    Jiangtao Hu

Authors
  1. Shurui Cao
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  2. Xue Zhou
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  4. Bobin Tang
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  5. Xiaowen Ding
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  6. Lei Zhang
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  8. Zhiqiong Chen
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  9. Xianliang Li
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Correspondence to Xianliang Li.

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Funding

This work was funded by “Food And Agricultural Research Fund Project of Chongqing Municipal Science and Technology Commission (No.cstc2013yykfB0165)” and “Youth Science and technology Talents Fund Project (No.cstc2014kjrc-qnrc00002)” of Chongqing Municipal Science and Technology Commission of the People’s Republic of China.

Conflict of Interest

Author Shurui Cao declares that she has no conflict of interest. Author Xue Zhou declares that she has no conflict of interest. Author Cunxian Xi declares that he has no conflict of interest. Author Bobing Tang declares that he has no conflict of interest. Author Xiaowen Ding declares that she has no conflict of interest. Author Shurui Cao declares that she has no conflict of interest. Author Jiangtao Hu declares that he has no conflict of interest. Author Zhiqiong Chen declares that she has no conflict of interest. Author Xianliang Li declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Cao, S., Zhou, X., Xi, C. et al. Cleaning Up Vegetable Samples Using a Modified “QuEChERS” Procedure for the Determination of 17 Plant Growth Regulator Residues by Ultra High Performance Liquid Chromatography–Triple Quadrupole Linear Ion Trap Mass Spectrometry. Food Anal. Methods 9, 2097–2104 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-015-0397-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-015-0397-y

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