Microfluidic chip-based nano-liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry for quantification of aflatoxins in peanut products

Aflatoxins (AFs), a group of mycotoxins, are generally produced by fungi Aspergillus species. The naturally occurring AFs including AFB1, AFB2, AFG1, and AFG2 have been clarified as group 1 human carcinogen by International Agency for Research on Cancer. Developing a sensitive analytical method has become an important issue to accurately quantify trace amount of AFs in foodstuffs. In this study, we employed a microfluidic chip-based nano LC (chip-nanoLC) coupled to triple quadrupole mass spectrometer (QqQ-MS) system for the quantitative determination of AFs in peanuts and related products. Gradient elution and multiple reaction monitoring were utilized for chromatographic separation and MS measurements. Solvent extraction followed by immunoaffinity solid-phase extraction was employed to isolate analytes and reduce matrix effect from sample prior to chip-nanoLC/QqQ-MS analysis. Good recoveries were found to be in the range of 90.8%−100.4%. The linear range was 0.048−16 ng g−1 for AFB1, AFB2, AFG1, AFG2 and AFM1. Limits of detection were estimated as 0.004−0.008 ng g−1. Good intra-day/inter-day precision (2.3%−9.5%/2.3%−6.6%) and accuracy (96.1%−105.7%/95.5%−104.9%) were obtained. The applicability of this newly developed chip-nanoLC/QqQ-MS method was demonstrated by determining the AFs in various peanut products purchased from local markets.