An application of liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry for determination of aflatoxins

Aflatoxins have frequently occurred in nuts, spices, and cereals. Accurate determination of aflatoxins is required to assess the risk of human intoxication. Liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LCMS) is a powerful tool for the confirmation of aflatoxins, but it is not sufficient for routine analysis yet. We described here about an application for the determination of aflatoxins by LCMS electrospray ionization with a selected ion monitoring mode. Our analytical method provided the quantitative linearity at concentrations of 0.5-10 ng/ml. The relative standards deviation of aflatoxins was less than 4.34 % (10 ng/ml) after six times repeated injection. The present method was applied to the determination of aflatoxins in 6 food samples such as peanuts, pistachio nuts, almond, maize, nutmeg and red pepper harvested from markets. Aflatoxins B1, B2, G1, and G2 could be detected at the concentrations of more than 1 ng/g.