Screening of aflatoxins in feed samples using a flow system coupled to capillary electrophoresis.
A method is proposed which presents a new approach to the joint use of capillary electrophoresis (CE) commercial equipment and a flow system. This flow system allows the total determination of several compounds by using a fluorimetric screening system. The individual determination for each analyte is performed by the CE proposed method. The screening procedure uses simple equipment and operations and provides a yes/no binary response that occasionally requires confirmation. A fast, simple, and reliable method has been developed in order to determine the most frequent mycotoxins in feed samples using micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MECC). An extraction step followed by a purification step was carried out on the samples in order to remove interference substances before analysis. A C18 column was chosen to concentrate the mycotoxins, and the analytes were eluted from C18 using methanol. The MECC method allows the separation of six mycotoxins within 50 min with a reproducibility as RSD between 7.45 and 13.06%, and a limit of detection (LOD) between 0.02 and 0.06 mg l(-1) for all the mycotoxins. These LODs were clearly below legal limits (0.05 mg l(-1)).
Peña
R
R
Analytical Chemistry Department, Science Faculty, University of Santiago de Compostela Alfonso X El Sabio s/n, 27002 Lugo, Spain.
Alcaraz
M C
MC
Arce
L
L
Ríos
A
A
Valcárcel
M
M
D000348:Aflatoxins / Q000032:analysis*; D000821:Animal Feed / Q000032:analysis*; D019075:Electrophoresis, Capillary / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
D000348:Aflatoxins