Abstract:

Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by toxigenic fungi under specific environmental conditions. Fruits, owing to their high moisture content, rich nutrition, and improper harvest or storage conditions, are highly susceptible to various mycotoxins, such as ochratoxin A (OTA), zearalenone (ZEN), patulin (PAT), Alternaria toxins, etc. These mycotoxins can cause acute and chronic toxic effects (teratogenicity, mutagenicity, and carcinogenicity, etc) in animals and humans. Given the high toxicity and wide prevalence of mycotoxins, establishing an efficient analytical method to detect multiple mycotoxins simultaneously in different types of fruits is of great importance. Conventional mycotoxin detection methods rely on high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with mass spectrometry (MS). However, fruit sample matrices contain large amounts of pigments, cellulose, and minerals, all of which dramatically impede the detection of trace mycotoxins in fruits. Therefore, the efficient enrichment and purification of multiple mycotoxins in fruit samples is crucial before instrumental analysis. In this study, a reliable method based on a QuEChERs sample preparation approach coupled with ultra performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) was established to determine 36 mycotoxins in fruits. In the optimal extraction method, 2.0 g of a sample was extracted with 10 mL of acetic acid-acetonitrile-water (1∶79∶20, v/v/v) in a 50 mL centrifuge tube, vortexed for 30 s, and ultrasonicated for 40 min. The mixture was then salted out with 2.0 g of anhydrous MgSO₄ and 0.5 g of NaCl and centrifuged for 5 min. Next, 6 mL of the supernatant was purified using 85 mg of octadecylsilane-bonded silica gel (C₁₈) and 15 mg of N-propylethylenediamine (PSA). After vigorous shaking and centrifugation, the supernatant was collected and dried with nitrogen at 40 ℃. Finally, the residues were redissolved in 1 mL of 5 mmol/L ammonium acetate aqueous solution-acetonitrile (50∶50, v/v) and passed through a 0.22 μm nylon filter before analysis. The mycotoxins were separated on a Waters XBridge BEH C₁₈ column using a binary gradient mixture of ammonium acetate aqueous solution and methanol. The injection volume was 3 μL. The mycotoxins were analyzed in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode under both positive and negative electrospray ionization. Quantitative analysis was performed using an external standard method with matrix-matched calibration curves. Under optimal conditions, good linear relationships were obtained in the respective linear ranges, with correlation coefficients (R²) no less than 0.990. The limits of detection (LODs) and quantification (LOQs) were 0.02-5 and 0.1-10 μg/kg, respectively. The recoveries of the 36 mycotoxins in fruits ranged from 77.0% to 118.9% at low, medium, and high spiked levels, with intra- and inter-day precisions in the range of 1.3%-14.9% and 0.2%-17.3%, respectively. The validated approach was employed to investigate mycotoxin contamination in actual fruit samples, including strawberry, grape, pear, and peach (15 samples of each type). Eleven mycotoxins, namely, altenuene (ALT), altenusin (ALS), alternariol-methyl ether (AME), tenuazonic acid (TeA), tentoxin (Ten), OTA, beauvericin (BEA), PAT, zearalanone (ZAN), T-2 toxin (T2), and mycophenolic acid (MPA), were found in the samples; three samples were contaminated with multiple mycotoxins. The incidence rates of mycotoxins in strawberry, grape, pear, and peach were 27%, 40%, 40%, and 33%, respectively. In particular, Alternaria toxins were the most frequently found mycotoxins in these fruits, with an incidence of 15%. The proposed method is simple, rapid, accurate, sensitive, reproducible, and stable; thus, it is suitable for the simultaneous detection of the 36 mycotoxins in different fruits.

Key words: QuEChERS, ultra performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS), mycotoxins, fruits