Profiling of benzimidazoles and related metabolites in pig serum based on SiO2@NiO solid-phase extraction combined precursor ion scan with high resolution orbitrap mass spectrometry

Abstract Benzimidazoles (BZDs) are widely used veterinary drugs in the domestic food-producing animals, resulting in the metabolism of BZDs and the harmful metabolites residues in some foods. However, some BZD metabolites are unknown and so it is important to discover new metabolites to expand detection targets. For these reasons, a sensitive and selective strategy was designed to identify BZD metabolites in the serum of pigs after oral administration of albendazole, fenbendazole and thiabendazole, respectively. Nickel oxide nanoparticle-deposited silica (SiO 2 @NiO) composite was used for the enrichment and purification of BZD compounds. High-performance liquid chromatography coupled with precursor ion scan-mass spectrometry (LC-PIS-MS) and high resolution MS/MS analysis (HR-MS/MS) was employed for the BZDs metabolic profiles characterization and metabolites detection. Finally, 18 BZD metabolites were identified, among which 11 metabolites were discovered in pig serum for the first time. Besides, more comprehensive BZD metabolic pathways were presented.