title: A sensitive gas chromatographic-tandem mass spectrometric method for detection of alkylating agents in water: application to acrylamide in drinking water, coffee and snuff.
abstract: A sensitive analytical method for the analysis of acrylamide and other electrophilic agents in water has been developed. The amino acid L-valine served as a nucleophilic trapping agent. The method was applied to the analysis of acrylamide in 0.2-1 mL samples of drinking water or Millipore-filtered water, brewed coffee, or water extracts of snuff. The reaction product, N-(2-carbamoylethyl)valine, was incubated with pentafluorophenyl isothiocyanate to give a pentafluorophenylthiohydantoin (PFPTH) derivative. This derivative was extracted with diethyl ether, separated from excess reagent and impurities by a simple extraction procedure, and analyzed by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. (2H3)Acrylamide, added before the reaction with L-valine, was used as internal standard. Acrylamide and the related compound, N-methylolacrylamide, gave the same PFPTH derivative. The concentrations of acrylamides were < or = 0.4 nmol L(-1) (< or = 0.03 microg acrylamide L(-1)) in water, 200 to 350 nmol L(-1) in brewed coffee, and 10 to 34 nmol g(-1) snuff in portion bags, respectively. The precision (the coefficient of variation was 5%) and accuracy of the method were good. The detection limit was considerably lower than that of previously published methods for the analysis of acrylamide.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology and Functional Genomics, Stockholm University, S-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Hermes Licea
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Pérez
authors.forename: Siv
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Osterman-Golkar
mesh_terms: D020106:Acrylamide / Q000032:analysis*; D003069:Coffee / Q000737:chemistry; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014030:Tobacco, Smokeless / Q000737:chemistry; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*; D014881:Water Supply / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D003069:Coffee; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D020106:Acrylamide