Determination for multiple mycotoxins in agricultural products using HPLC-MS/MS via a multiple antibody immunoaffinity column.

Abstract Mycotoxins usually found in agricultural products such as peanut, corn, and wheat, are a serious threat to human health and their detection requires multiplexed and sensitive analysis methods. Herein, a simultaneous determination for aflatoxin B1, B2, G1, G2, ochratoxin A, zearalanone and T-2 toxin was investigated using high performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry in a single run via a home-made multiple immunoaffinity column. Four monoclonal antibodies were produced in our lab against aflatoxins, ochratoxin A, zearalanone and T-2 toxin, respectively, then combined as a pool and bound to Sepharose-4B for affinity chromatography. Seven mycotoxins were effectively extracted from the agricultural product samples by using acetonitrile/water/acetic acid (80:19:1, v/v/v) Then, the extraction was cleanup by multiple immunoaffinity column. This method demonstrated a considerable linear range of 0.30–25, 0.12–20, 0.30–20, 0.12–20, 0.60–30, 0.30–25, and 1.2–40 μg kg −1 and lower limits of detection at 0.1, 0.04, 0.1, 0.04, 0.2, 0.1 and 0.4 μg kg −1 for AFB1, AFB2, AFG1, AFG2, OTA, ZEN and T-2, respectively, in comparison with previously reported methods, as well as excellent recoveries. The mIAC capacity for AFB1, AFB2, AFG1, AFG2, OTA, ZEN, and T-2 were 187, 181, 153, 151, 105, 130, 88 ng, respectively. It was found that all of the 7 mycotoxins were present in 90 agricultural product samples. The proposed method meets the requirements for rapid sample preparation and highly sensitive identification of multiple mycotoxins in agricultural product and food safety. This method provides a promising alternative with high throughput and high sensitivity for rapid analysis of seven mycotoxins in the monitoring of food safety.