Rapid green analytical methodology for simultaneous biomonitoring of five toxic areca nut alkaloids using UHPLC-MS/MS for predicting health hazardous risks.

Abstract Areca nut (AN) is a fundamental component of betel quid (BQ), an addictive and carcinogenic mixture chewed by hundreds of millions of people in India-Asia-Pacific. Chewing of BQ is associated with oral cancers due to specific carcinogenic alkaloids (arecaidine, guvacine, guvacoline, arecoline, N-Nitrosoguvacoline) in AN. To predict the hazardous health risks of short and long-term chewing of BQ, it is crucial to identify five toxic AN alkaloids in saliva and urine of BQ chewers. This study reports a green analytical methodology comprising in-syringe assisted vortex-induced salt-enhanced liquid-liquid microextraction coupled with ultra-HPLC-MS/MS for simultaneous biomonitoring of five AN alkaloids in saliva and urine. The analytical method validation results exhibited good linearities between 0.05 and 1000 ng mL−1 with r2 > 0.9930. The detection and quantification limits were between 0.01 and 1.5 and 0.05–5 ng mL−1. Relative recoveries ranged between 87.9% and 110.1% with RSD