title: Analysis of zearalenone and α-zearalenol in 100 foods and medicinal plants determined by HPLC-FLD and positive confirmation by LC-MS-MS.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Mycotoxins, which may contaminate many foods and medicinal plants, are poisonous to humans. A high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (HPLC-FLD) method was successfully developed for analysing the contamination levels of zearalenone (ZON) and its metabolite α-zearalenol (α-ZOL) in 100 widely consumed foods and medicinal plants in China. Samples were extracted with methanol-water (80:20, v/v), and cleaned up by using an immunoaffinity column.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The limits of detection of this developed method for ZON and α-ZOL were 4 µg kg(-1) and 2.5 µg kg(-1) , respectively. Recoveries for the samples spiked with three levels (30, 60 and 300 µg kg(-1) for ZON and α-ZOL) ranged from 85.8% to 96.1% with relative standard deviation (RSD) of 2.6-7.1% for ZON, and from 89.9% to 98.7% with RSD of 1.9-9.2% for α-ZOL. Twelve (12%) of these tested samples were contaminated with ZON at levels ranging from 5.3 to 295.8 µg kg(-1). The most contaminated samples were Semen coicis, four of them in a concentration level exceeding 60 µg kg(-1) 'maximum level' (range 68.9-119.6 µg kg(-1)). Positive samples were further confirmed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results suggest that it is necessary to control ZON contamination in medicinal plants, especially Semen coicis. This is a successful study on the analysis of ZON and α-ZOL in medicinal plants in China by HPLC-FLD. Immunoaffinity clean-up and HPLC-FLD proved to have broad applicability in the field of simultaneously detecting ZON and α-ZOL in foods and medicinal plants and other complicated matrices.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100193, China.
authors.forename: Wei-Jun
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.forename: Hong-Hong
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Xiao-Fei
authors.initials: XF
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xiao-Li
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ou-yang
authors.forename: Mei-Hua
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D002845:Chromatography / Q000379:methods; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D031742:Coix; D004032:Diet; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000737:chemistry*; D005453:Fluorescence; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D057230:Limit of Detection; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods; D010945:Plants, Edible / Q000737:chemistry*; D010946:Plants, Medicinal / Q000737:chemistry*; D015025:Zearalenone / Q000032:analysis*; D015029:Zeranol / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; C029659:zearalenol; D015025:Zearalenone; D015029:Zeranol