Automatic Pretreatment of Dispersive Liquid Liquid Microextraction Based on Immunomagnetic Beads Coupled with UPLC-FLD for the Determination of Zearalenone in Corn Oils.

Sample pretreatment is a vital step in the detection of mycotoxins, and traditional pretreatment methods are time-consuming, labor-intensive and generate much organic waste liquid. In this work, an automatic, high-throughput and environmentally friendly pretreatment method is proposed. Immunomagnetic beads technology and dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction technology are combined, and the zearalenone in corn oils is directly purified and concentrated under the solubilization effects of surfactant. The proposed pretreatment method allows for the batch pretreatment of samples without pre-extraction using organic reagents, and almost no organic waste liquid is produced. Coupled with UPLC-FLD, an effective and accurate quantitative detection method for zearalenone is established. The recovery of spiked zearalenone in corn oils at different concentrations ranges from 85.7 to 89.0%, and the relative standard deviation is below 2.9%. The proposed pretreatment method overcomes the shortcomings of traditional pretreatment methods and has broad application prospects.

Surfactant-Enhanced and Automated Pretreatment Based on Immunoaffinity Magnetic Beads Coupled with Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography with Fluorescence Detection for the Determination of Aflatoxins in Peanut Oils.

Sample pretreatment is an important step in the detection and analysis of mycotoxins. However, conventional pretreatment methods are complex, time-consuming, and labor-intensive; moreover, they generate a large amount of organic waste that pollutes the environment. An environmentally friendly and automated pretreatment method is proposed. Without extraction using organic solvents in advance, aflatoxins in peanut oil are directly cleaned and concentrated by immunomagnetic beads with the aid of a reaction solution containing surfactant Tween-20. Under optimal conditions, the proposed pretreatment method requires 40 min to simultaneously pretreat 10-24 samples without any centrifugation or filtering steps, and virtually no organic waste was produced. This pretreatment step was coupled with ultra-performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence detection to develop an effective detection method. The recovery of spiked aflatoxins in peanut oils at different concentrations ranged from 91.6 to 100.8%, and the relative standard deviation was below 5.3%. This reliable method overcomes the drawbacks of conventional methods and offers great application prospects.