Simultaneous determination of four ergot alkaloids in food using liquid chromatography tandem spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)

Abstract

A simple and accurate LC-MS/MS method has been developed for the simultaneous determination of four ergot alkaloids (EAs) including ergosine, ergocryptine, ergocristine and ergocorsine in food. The studied EAs were extracted and cleaned up using QuEChERS technique then separated using C18 column and quantified by MS/MS detector. The positive ESI source was used in this study together with multi-reactive ion monitoring mode. The method, which has been validated according to AOAC International requirements, showed good specificity, with the linearity varying from 5.0 µg/kg to 100 µg/kg, the LODs and LOQs were 0.3 µg/kg and 1.0 µg/kg; the repeatability and recovery were from 3.7 to 12.5 % and 90.6 - 102.8% respectively. The method has been applied to determine the EAs concentration in 90 corn, wheat and cereal samples, of which no samples were detected with the studied EAs.