Development of a capillary electrophoresis method for the separation of flavonolignans in silymarin complex.

CE method for the baseline separation of structurally similar flavonolignans silybin A, silybin B, isosilybin A, isosilybin B, silychristin, silydianin, and their precursor taxifolin in silymarin complex has been developed and validated. The optimized background electrolyte was 100 mmol/L boric acid (pH 9.0) containing 5 mmol/L heptakis(2,3,6-tri-O-methyl)-ß-CD and 10% (v/v) of methanol. The separation was carried out in an 80.5/72 cm (50 µm id) fused silica capillary at +25 kV with UV detection at 200 nm. Genistein (10 µg/mL) was used as internal standard. The resolution between the diastereomers of silybin and isosilybin was 1.73 and 2.59, respectively. The method was validated for each analyte in a concentration range of 2.5-50 µg/mL. The calibration curves were rectilinear with correlation coefficients ≥0.9972. The method was applied to determine flavonolignans in two dietary supplements containing Silybum marianum extract. The accuracy was evaluated by comparing the results of the CE analyses of the dietary supplements with those of the reference United States Pharmacopeial HPLC method. The unpaired t-test did not show a statistically significant difference between the results of both the proposed CE and the reference method (p > 0.05, n = 3).

Sensitive Detection of Neonicotinoid Insecticides and Other Selected Pesticides in Pollen and Nectar Using Nanoflow Liquid Chromatography Orbitrap Tandem Mass Spectrometry.

In this work, a new method based on nanoflow LC with high-resolution MS was developed for the determination of eight pesticides in pollen and nectar samples, including neonicotinoid insecticides and other selected pesticides commonly found in bees and beeswax. Detection was undertaken with a hybrid quadrupole-Orbitrap mass spectrometer (Q Exactive™) equipped with a commercial nanospray ion source. The extraction of pesticides from pollen samples was performed by a modified micro-QuEChERS method scaled down to Eppendorf tubes, whereas nectar samples were simply diluted with a water-methanol (95 + 5, v/v) solution. Good linearity (>0.999 in all cases) was obtained between 0.05 and 500 µg/kg and between 0.04 and 400 µg/kg for pollen and nectar, respectively. Recovery rates in pollen ranged from 85 to 97%, with RSDs <12%. Matrix effect was evaluated and showed negligible effects for all studied pesticides. The lowest concentration levels tested and validated were 0.5 and 0.4 µg/kg for pollen and nectar matrixes, respectively. In addition, selected incurred samples were studied, obtaining several positive findings in pollen and nectar samples, demonstrating the sensitivity and applicability of the proposed method.

Detection of over 100 selenium metabolites in selenized yeast by liquid chromatography electrospray time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

The characterization of the selenometabolome of Selenized(Se)-yeast, that is the fraction of water soluble low-molecular weight Se-metabolites produced in Se-yeast is of paramount interest to expand the knowledge on the composition of this food supplement. In this work, we have applied liquid chromatography electrospray time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-TOFMS) to search for Se-species from the low molecular weight range fraction of the selenized yeast used for food supplements. Prior to LC-TOFMS, sample treatment consisted of ultrasound assisted water extraction followed by size exclusion fractionation assisted with off-line inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry detection of isotope 82Se. The fraction corresponding to low-molecular weight species was subjected to LC-TOFMS using electrospray ionization in the positive ion mode. The detection of the suspected selenized species has been based on the information obtained from accurate mass measurements of both the protonated molecules and fragments from in-source CID fragmentation; along with the characteristic isotope pattern exhibited by the presence of Se. The approach enables the detection of 103 selenized species, most of them not previously reported, in the range from ca. 300-650Da. Besides the detection of selenium species, related sulphur derivate metabolites were detected based on the accurate mass shift due to the substitution of sulphur and selenium.

Evaluation of different cleanup sorbents for multiresidue pesticide analysis in fatty vegetable matrices by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry.

In this article we have evaluated the performance of different sorbents for the cleanup step in multiresidue pesticide analysis in fatty vegetable matrices using QuEChERS methodology. The three different matrices tested (olive oil, olives and avocado) were partitioned using acetonitrile prior to cleanup step. Afterwards, the supernatant was purified using different sorbents: C18+PSA (primary secondary amine), Z-Sep(+) (zirconium oxide and C18 dual bonded to silica), Z-Sep (zirconium oxide bonded to silica) and a novel sorbent Enhanced Matrix Removal-Lipid (EMR) whose composition has not been disclosed. The different cleanup strategies were compared for a group of 67 representative pesticides in terms of recovery rates, matrix effects, extract cleanliness and precision using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS). The best extraction efficiencies in olive oil matrix were obtained using EMR, while the results for olives and avocado were pretty similar amongst the different sorbents with an overall lower performance in terms of matrix effects and recovery rates compared to olive oil data, particularly in olives due to the higher complexity and concentration of coextracted species. On the other hand, the average reproducibility was clearly better when EMR sorbent was employed in all selected matrices for most pesticides (RSD<10% for 45, 52, and 56 pesticides in avocado, olives and olive oil respectively). The best results in terms of matrix effects were also obtained with EMR; with signal suppression lower than 20% for 79%, 16% and 51% of pesticides tested in olive oil, olives and avocado respectively. Using EMR as cleanup sorbent, limits of quantitation using UHPLC-MS/MS, ranged from 0.10 to 90µgkg(-1), allowing their determination at the low concentration levels demanded by current olive oil regulations in most cases.

Determination of carbamates in edible vegetable oils by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry using a new clean-up based on zirconia for QuEChERS methodology.

In this study a fast, selective and sensitive multiresidue method based on QuEChERS methodology has been evaluated and validated for the determination of carbamate pesticides, in edible vegetable oils by UHPLC-MS/MS. A new clean-up sorbent, Supel(TM) QuE Z-Sep(+), has been successfully applied in vegetable oil extracts. Z-Sep(+) was compared with other sorbents (i.e. mixture of C18 and PSA) previously used for dispersive solid phase extraction of these matrices, reducing more effectively matrix effects without a significant decrease of analyte recoveries. Matrix effect was studied in different matrices (extra-virgin olive, sunflower, maize, linseed and sesame oil) being ≤│30│% for most of the studied pesticides. Under optimum conditions, recoveries ranged from 74% to 101%, with relative standard deviations lower than 10%. Limits of quantification ranged from 0.09 to 2.0 µg kg(-1), allowing their determination at the low concentration levels demanding by current legislation.