title: Gas-liquid chromatographic-mass spectrometric determination of alpha- and beta-naphthylamines in FD&C Red No. 2 (amaranth).
abstract: A method is described for the simultaneous quantitation of trace amounts of alpha- (alpha-NA) and beta-naphthylamines (beta-NA) with detectability in the 0.1 ppb range and sensitivity of 50 picomoles in certified food grade amaranth (FD&C Red No. 2; C.I. Food Red 9; CI 16185). The amaranth sample is extracted with benzene, and the evoporated residue is derivatized with perfluorooctanoic anhydride. The resulting derivatives are separated by gas-liquid chromatography and identified and quantitated by mass spectrometric monitoring of the m/e at 539.04. The method was used for quantitation of alpha-NA and beta-NA in randomly chosen samples of amaranth. Of 11 samples from different manufacturers, 5 were free of the beta-isomer; the remaining samples contained up to 1.2 ppb beta-NA. The concentration of alpha-NA ranged from no detectable amount to 970 ppb; the majority of the samples contained less than 7 ppb.
mesh_terms: D015057:1-Naphthylamine / Q000032:analysis*; D015081:2-Naphthylamine / Q000032:analysis*; D000548:Amaranth Dye / Q000032:analysis*; D001391:Azo Compounds / Q000032:analysis*; D004340:Drug Contamination; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D008832:Microchemistry; D009281:Naphthalenes / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D001391:Azo Compounds; D009281:Naphthalenes; D000548:Amaranth Dye; D015057:1-Naphthylamine; D015081:2-Naphthylamine