Suchergebnisse

Among natural freshwater pollutants, cyanotoxins, mycotoxins, and phytotoxins are the most important and less studied. Their identification in surface water is challenging especially cause of the lack of standards and established analytical parameters. Most target methods focus one or a single group of compounds with similar characteristics. Here we present an AIF fast method for the tentative identification of natural toxins in water. Respect to the previous method [1], it offers higher performances for the acquisition of unknown compounds at low levels for higher number of analytes.The key aspects of the method are: -The qualitative screening DIA-AIF workflow using Q Exactive Orbitrap. Both targeted and suspect screening bases have been combined with online databases and suspect list to retrieve candidates as suspect natural toxins and their metabolites or degradation products. -The in-silico analysis of mass spectrums allowed a fast structural characterization. -The workflow has been finally applied to real samples coming from the Czech Republic, Italy, and Spain allowing the determination of 17 suspect natural toxins, 4 of them confirmed. None toxin passed the limit of 1 µg/L taken from the legislation applied for microcystin LR and arbitrarily extended to all toxins.

A field-amplified sample injection-micellar electrokinetic chromatography (FASI-MEKC) method for the determination of 14 benzophenones (BPs) in a food simulant used in migration studies of food packaging materials was developed, allowing almost baseline separation in less than 21 min. The use of a 10 mM sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) solution as sample matrix was mandatory to achieve FASI enhancement of the analyzed BPs. A 21- to 784-fold sensitivity enhancement was achieved with FASI-MEKC, obtaining limits of detection down to 5.1 68.4 µg/L, with acceptable run-to-run precisions (RSD values lower than 22.3%) and accuracy (relative errors lower than 21.0%). Method performance was evaluated by quantifying BPs in the food simulant spiked at 500 µg/L (bellow the established specific migration limit for BP (600 µg/L) by EU legislation). For a 95% confidence level, no statistical differences were observed between found and spiked concentrations (probability at the confidence level, p value, of 0.55), showing that the proposed FASI-MEKC method is suitable for the analysis of BPs in food packaging migration studies at the levels established by EU legislation.

Besides anthropogenic contamination, freshwater environments can also be affected by the presence of natural toxins. Mycotoxins, plant toxins and cyanotoxins are the most relevant groups that can be found in the aquatic system. However, until now, only cyanotoxins have been more carefully studied. In the present work, single workflow for the assessment of natural toxins in waters, based on suspect screening and target screening of a selected group of toxins is presented. The approach is based on a triple-stage solid-phase extraction (SPE) able to isolate a wide range of natural toxins of different polarities, followed by liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry (HPLC-ddHRMS2) using a Q-Exactive Orbitrap analyser. The acquisition was performed in full-scan (FS) and data-dependant acquisition (ddMS2) mode, working under positive and negative mode. For the tentative identification, different on-line databases such as ChemSpider and MzCloud and an in-house natural toxins list with 2384 structures, that includes cyanotoxins, plant toxins and mycotoxins, were used. Also, thanks to the MS2 data, it was possible to achieve a high level of tentative identification confidence, but confirmation was only possible comparing the standards of the suspected compounds. For those, the analytical parameters of the developed method were also validated, and the quantification was possible by external calibration. Validation showed recoveries in the range between 53 and 95 %, and method limits of detection (MDL) between 0.02 and 1.22 μg/L. This approach was applied to study natural toxins in 4 sampling sites along the Ter River in Catalonia (NE Spain). In this preliminary study 23 natural toxins were tentatively identified, and 9 of them confirmed (aflatoxin B1, anatoxin-a, nodularin, microcystin-LR, baicalein, kojic acid, cinchonine, B-asarone and atropine). The results of the quantification of these compounds showed concentrations below 1 μg/L in all cases, that is considered safe according to the actual legislation. This suspect screening approach allows a more comprehensive assessment of natural toxins in natural waters.

Veterinary medicines are widely administered to farm animals since they keep animals healthy at overcrowded conditions. Nevertheless the continuous administration of medicines to farm animals can frequently lead to the presence of residues of veterinary drugs in consumption products. Amprolium is a quaternary ammonium compound used in the treatment of coccidiosis. In this paper a method based on capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) to analyze residues of amprolium in eggs was developed and validated for the first time. Parameters such as electrolyte type, concentration and pH were optimized. In order to improve sensitivity, field amplified sample injection (FASI) was used for in-line preconcentration after a quick and simple sample treatment based on SPE (Envi-Carb). During method validation studies using egg samples a matrix interference was found at the migration time of amprolium. This compound was identified as thiamine and confirmed by MSn experiments using capillary electrophoresis coupled to mass spectrometry (CE-MS) with an ion-trap mass analyzer. CZE conditions were re-optimized to separate thiamine from amprolium allowing the quantification of amprolium in eggs at concentrations down to 75 µg Kg-1, which are far below the MRL legislated values.

Conditions were established for the separation and analysis of Bisphenol A (BPA), Bisphenol F (BPF), and their diglycidyl ethers, by micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MECC). Good resolution was obtained for all compounds, although in order to achieve the separation of ortho-ortho, ortho-para, and para-para isomers of Bisphenol F diglycidyl ether (BFDGE), BFDGE¿2H2O and BFDGE¿2HCl, it was necessary to use a 25 µm I.D. fused-silica capillary. To increase sensitivity, a field amplified sample injection (FASI)-MECC method was developed using 10 mM sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) solution as injection matrix and a 75 µm I.D. fused-silica capillary. Instrumental quality parameters such as limits of detection (0.999), and run-to-run and day-to-day precisions (relative standard deviations (RSD) values lower than 12.5%) were determined. Finally, the suitability of the FASI-MECC method for the analysis of BPA, BPF and their diglycidyl ethers in canned soft-drinks was evaluated. Quantitation was performed by matrix-matched calibration using a plastic-bottled isotonic drink as matrix. The results showed that FASI-MECC is an economic method for the screening and quantitation of these kinds of compounds in soft-drink beverages, with no loss of reproducibility, and effective at concentrations lower than the specific migration level (SML) values established by the European Union.

Analytical strategies for screening, quantitation and confirmation of a group of 100 pesticides in fruit and vegetable samples by LC-MS and LC-MS/MS were developed. The pesticides studied belong to different chemical families of herbicides, insecticides and fungicides. A selection of some degradation products was also included. Chromatographic separation was performed using a Zorbax Eclipse XDB-C8 column (150 mm × 4.6 mm and 5 µm particle size), and gradient elution with acetonitrile-water (both with 0.1% formic acid) as mobile phase. LC-MS/MS using highly-selective selected reaction monitoring (H-SRM) acquisition mode monitoring two transitions for each compound showed to be the most sensitive methodology. Quantitation was carried out using matrix-matched standard calibration and good linearity of response was demonstrated (r > 0.998). Limits of detection (by acquiring two transitions and with the ion-ratio requirements) ranged between 0.01 and 20 µg/kg were obtained. So, in general, the sensitivity achieved meets the maximum residue levels (MRLs) established by the European Union regulation for food monitoring programs. Pesticide confirmation was carried out following European Union guidelines. In order to prevent false-positives, further confirmatory strategies were proposed. LC-MS in highly-selective selected ion monitoring (H-SIM) mode with accurate mass measurement was used to obtain an orthogonal criterion (exact mass) for confirmation. Accurate mass measurements were always bellow 0.9 mDa for almost all pesticides studied (similar to those described with TOF instruments). A user reversed energy ramp (RER) product ion scan spectra library was generated by means of a data dependent analysis for routine library searching of pesticides. The combination of LC-MS/MS in H-SRM mode and the generation of the RER product ion scan spectra and library search were then used to achieve further confirmation on pesticide analysis. The LC-MS and LC-MS/MS strategies developed were successfully applied for the analysis and confirmation of pesticides in different types of fruit and vegetables samples, and examples of the screening, quantitation and confirmation of pesticides in these samples are shown in this work.