title: Using pollen grains as novel hydrophilic solid-phase extraction sorbents for the simultaneous determination of 16 plant growth regulators.
abstract: In this article, pollen grains were for the first time used as a hydrophilic solid-phase extraction (HILIC-SPE) sorbent for the determination of 16 plant growth regulators (PGRs) in fruits and vegetables. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) and nitrogen sorption porosimetry (NSP) were used to investigate the chemical structure and the surface properties of the pollen grains. Pollen grains exhibited an excellent adsorption capacity for some polar compounds due to their particular functional groups. Several parameters influencing extraction performance were investigated. A green and simple HILIC-SPE-method using pollen grain cartridge for purification of fruit and vegetable extractions, followed by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) was established. Good linear relationships were obtained for 16 PGRs with correlation coefficients (R) above 0.9980. The limits of detection (LODs) of 16 PGRs in cucumber were in the range of 0.01-1.10 μg · kg(-1). Reproducibility of the method was evaluated by intra-day and inter-day precisions with relative standard deviations (RSDs), which were less than 14.4%. We successfully applied this methodology to analyze 16 PGRs in 8 different kinds of fruits and vegetables. The recoveries from samples spiked with 16 PGRs were from 80.5% to 119.2%, with relative standard deviations less than 15.0%.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine (Ministry of Education), Department of Chemistry, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei 430072, PR China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: College of Chemical Engineering, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan, Hubei 430200, PR China.
authors.forename: Jian-Hong
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine (Ministry of Education), Department of Chemistry, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei 430072, PR China.
authors.forename: Qiong-Wei
authors.initials: QW
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine (Ministry of Education), Department of Chemistry, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei 430072, PR China. Electronic address: yqfeng@whu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yu-Qi
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Feng
mesh_terms: D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D005638:Fruit / Q000737:chemistry; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D057230:Limit of Detection; D010937:Plant Growth Regulators / Q000032:analysis*; D011058:Pollen / Q000737:chemistry*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D052616:Solid Phase Extraction / Q000379:methods*; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D010937:Plant Growth Regulators
keywords: Hydrophilic solid-phase extraction; Plant growth regulators; Pollen grains; UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS