Analysis of chlormequat and mepiquat by hydrophilic interaction chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry in food samples

• Published in: Journal of Chromatography A Vol. 1216; no. 20; pp. 4402 - 4406
• Main Authors: Esparza, X., Moyano, E., Galceran, M.T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 15-05-2009; Amsterdam; New York: Elsevier; Elsevier
• Subjects: beers; Biological and medical sciences; breads; chemical residues; chlormequat; Chlormequat - analysis; Chromatography, Liquid - methods; coffee (beverage); Food analysis; Food Analysis - methods; food contamination; Food industries; fruit juices; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects; HILIC; hydrophilic interaction chromatography; hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography; infant foods; LC–MS/MS; liquid chromatography; mass spectrometry; mepiquat; Methods of analysis, processing and quality control, regulation, standards; Piperidines - analysis; plant growth substances; Quats; raw fruit; raw vegetables; tandem mass spectrometry; Tandem Mass Spectrometry - methods; Quats; Food analysis; HILIC; LC–MS/MS; Solid phase extraction; Tandem mass spectrometry; Chemical analysis; Organic cation; Vegetables; HPLC chromatography; Coffee; Electrospray; Beer; Chemical enrichment; Bread; LC-MS/MS; Sample preparation; Infant food; Plant growth substance; Food; Quantitative analysis; Chlormequat; Fruit; Coupled method; Hydrophilic Interaction Liquid chromatography; Fruit juice; Contamination; Quaternary ammonium compound; Residue
• ISSN: 0021-9673; 1873-3778
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chroma.2009.03.037

In this work a LC–MS/MS method for the determination of two quaternary ammonium growth regulators (chlormequat and mepiquat) in food is reported. The separation was based on hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) without the use of ion-pair reagents. A gradient elution of acetonitrile and formic acid/ammonium formate buffer from 60 to 40% acetonitrile was enough to achieve a resolution >1.5 in less than 4.0
min. The HILIC system was coupled to a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer equipped with a heated electrospray probe (H-ESI) providing sub-pg LODs in SRM mode. A straightforward sample treatment (SPE C18 clean-up) was enough to provide MLODs at low ppb levels when analysing a range of food samples that covered different kinds of matrices such as fresh fruit, vegetables, fruit juices, baby food, bread, coffee and beer. Chlormequat was found in seven samples (0.8–126
ng/g) but mepiquat was only detected in bread and coffee samples (0.9–166
ng/g).