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Determination of Antibiotics in Vegetables Using QuEChERS-Based Method and Liquid Chromatography-Quadrupole Linear Ion Trap Mass Spectrometry

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Abstract

In this study, a simple and reliable method was developed for multiresidue analysis of 49 antibiotics in vegetables based on the quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe (QuEChERS) procedure and liquid chromatography-quadrupole linear ion trap mass spectrometry determination. Premixed extraction salt packets were first used to simplify the sample extraction procedures. Different buffer systems and other parameters were optimized. Multiple reaction monitoring with information-dependent acquisition of enhanced product ion (MRM-IDA-EPI) mode was used to acquire MS/MS spectra along with MRM survey scan for library searching to prevent false positive/negative identification. The method limit of quantification (LOQs) was between 2 and 5 μg/kg for the target antibiotics. Recoveries for most of antibiotics ranged between 70 and 100% with RSD < 20%. Relative lower recoveries were observed for some of quinolones. The method was applied on quantification of 60 vegetable samples, and the obtained results revealed that 33% of the samples were found to be contaminated with antibiotics. False positive of demeclocycline was avoided benefited from the application of MS/MS library searching.

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Funding

This work was supported by the subproject of the national key research and development plan (grant number 2016YFD0201203).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory for Environmental Factors Control of Agro-product Quality Safety, Ministry of Agriculture, Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, Tianjin, 300191, People’s Republic of China

    Zeying He, Yuehua Wang, Yaping Xu & Xiaowei Liu

Authors
  1. Zeying He
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  2. Yuehua Wang
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  3. Yaping Xu
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  4. Xiaowei Liu
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Correspondence to Xiaowei Liu.

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Conflict of Interest

Zeying He declares that he has no conflict of interest. Yuehua Wang declares that he has no conflict of interest. Yaping Xu declares that she has no conflict of interest. Xiaowei Liu declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects.

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He, Z., Wang, Y., Xu, Y. et al. Determination of Antibiotics in Vegetables Using QuEChERS-Based Method and Liquid Chromatography-Quadrupole Linear Ion Trap Mass Spectrometry. Food Anal. Methods 11, 2857–2864 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-018-1252-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-018-1252-8

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