Establishment of Analytical Methods for Melamine Related Compounds in Biological Samples

Melamine has raised international concerns for its catastrophic health effects from tainted infant formula. This report concerns the developmental validation of a sensitive HPLC/MS/MS and GC/MS methods about melamine and cyanuric acid in human urine and serum. Analytical detection ranges of LC/MS was from 0.2 to 5.0 ng/mL and 2.0 to 60.0 ng/mL about melamine and cyanuric acid, respectively. The limits of quantification and confirmation are 0.2 ng/mL for both analytes in human urine and serum by LC/MS/MS. The range of recovery was 91.6%, and 107.6% for cyanuric acid and melamine in urine, respectively. The range of precision coefficient variation was from 2.0%, to 11.8% for cyanuric acid and melamine in urine. The range of recovery was from 94.9%, to 119.0% about cyanuric acid and melamine in serum, respectively. The range of precision coefficient variation from was 3.7%, and 13.5% about cyanuric acid and melamine in serum. Analytical detection ranges of GC/MS were 5.0 to 100.0 ng/mL about melamine and cyanuric acid, respectively. The limits of quantification and confirmation are 5.0 ng/mL for both analytes in human urine and serum by GC/MS. The range of recovery was from 83.7%, to 114.5% for cyanuric acid and melamine in urine, respectively. The range of precision coefficient variation was 3.5%, and 10.7% for cyanuric acid and melamine in urine. The range of recovery was 94.4%, and 110.7% for cyanuric acid and melamine in serum, respectively. The range of precision coefficient variation from was 3.9%, and 13.8% for cyanuric acid and melamine in serum. Several changes were taken to optimize performance by this method.