A comprehensive strategy for screening and exploring multi-class mycotoxins contamination status in Astragali Radix

Abstract In this work, a sensitive, rapid, and greenness UFLC–MS/MS method for screening of 21 mycotoxins in Astragali Radix was established, optimized and validated for the first time. The parameters of UFLC–MS/MS were optimized. And two commonly used sample extraction methods (SLE-SPE, QuEChERS) were compared and optimized to obtain satisfactory extraction of target mycotoxins. Finally, using acetonitrile-water-formic acid (84:15:1, v/v/v) extraction with SLE-SPE clean-up, the multi-class mycotoxins were successfully determined in Astragali Radix by UFLC-MS/MS. The method was validated for sensitivity, linearity and precision and accuracy, and the proposed method was applied to the rapid monitoring of 21 mycotoxins in Astragali Radix. What’s more, the detection results of real samples (fresh sample, decoction pieces, moldy sample and the sample inoculated with Aspergillus flavus) revealed the regularity of mycotoxin contamination in Astragali Radix. Finally, this is the first systematic and comprehensive study of mycotoxin contamination status in Astragali Radix, which is of great significance to ensure the quality.