Dispersive solid-phase extraction followed by high-performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry for the determination of ricinine in cooking oil

A rapid and accurate method by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) using positive electrospray was established for the determination of ricinine in cooking oils. The homogenized samples, spiked with 13C6-labelled ricinine as an internal standard, were extracted using ethanol/water (20:80, v/v) and purified by dispersive solid-phase extraction (dSPE) using primary–secondary amine (PSA) and C18 as adsorbents. The extract was separated in a short C18 reversed-phase column using methanol/water (25:75, v/v) as the mobile phase and detected in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode with the absolute matrix effect of 93.2–102.2%. The alkali-metal adduct ions were discussed and the mass/mass fragmentation pathway was explained. Ricinine showed good linearity in the range of 0.5–50.0 μg/kg with the limit of quantitation 0.5 μg/kg. The recoveries were between 86.0% and 98.3% with the intra- and inter-day RSDs of 2.6–7.0%, 5.5–10.8%, respectively. This method could be applied to the rapid quantification of ricinine in cooking oils.