Rapid Simultaneous Analysis of Ten Biogenic Amines in Aquatic Products by Ultra-high-performance Supercritical Fluid Chromatography Combined with Mass Spectrometry

• Published in: Food analytical methods 2023, Vol.16 (1), p.206-214
• Main Authors: Du, Yingqi, Tang, Haiqing, Ou, Changrong, Wu, Caiye, Chen, Zuman
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Amines; Ammonia; Analytical Chemistry; Biogenic amines; Carbon dioxide; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Chemistry/Food Science; Chromatography; Detection limits; Flow rates; Flow velocity; Food quality; Food safety; Food Science; Ions; Mass spectrometry; Mass spectroscopy; Microbiology; Scientific imaging; Separation; Spectroscopy; Supercritical fluids; Toruses
• ISSN: 1936-9751; 1936-976X
• DOI: 10.1007/s12161-022-02398-w

A method for accurate, reliable, ultra-high-performance supercritical fluid chromatography (UHPSFC) coupled with mass spectrometry for the simultaneous determination of biogenic amines (BAs) in aquatic foods was optimized and validated. The underivatized BAs were separated using an ACQUITY UPC 2 BEH column, and gradient elution was performed using a mixture of supercritical CO 2 and methanol containing 0.2% ammonia at a rate of 1.2 mL/min. There stationary phases (BEH, HSS C18 SB, and Torus 2-PIC) packed with sub-2-μm particles were selected, and the analytical conditions, including backpressure, flow rate, and column temperature, were investigated to improve the separation. Under the optimized conditions, all 10 BAs were simultaneously separated and determined by UHPSFC-MS within 5 min. A good linear relationship ranging from 0.25 to 5 μg mL −1 was obtained, with the detection limits between 0.0021 and 0.15 μg mL −1 and quantification limits between 0.064 and 0.46 μg mL −1 . The recoveries of the 10 BAs in fermented fish sample were between 95.10 and 103.78%, and intra- and interday precisions were all below 8.59%. Furthermore, this method has the benefits of easy operation, rapid separation, and avoidance of tedious sample derivatization. The separation technique for analyzing the BAs not only satisfied the food safety and quality detection demands but also provided a technical approach for investigating the theoretical principle for the analysis of BAs. Graphical abstract An accurate, ultra-high performance supercritical fluid chromatography combined with mass spectrometry method for the simultaneous determination of biogenic amines (BAs) was developed, this approach is environmentally friendly and successfully achieved in 5 min.