Determination of ochratoxin A in traditional Chinese medicinal plants by HPLC-FLD

• Published in: Food additives & contaminants. Part A, Chemistry, analysis, control, exposure & risk assessment Chemistry, analysis, control, exposure & risk assessment, 2010-07, Vol.27 (7), p.989-997
• Main Authors: Yang, Lei, Wang, Linan, Pan, Jianyu, Xiang, Lan, Yang, Meihua, Logrieco, Antonio F.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: affinity columns; Analytical chemistry; Aspergillus - isolation & purification; Biological and medical sciences; Calibration; Chinese medicine; Chromatography; Chromatography, Affinity; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; clean-up; Drug Contamination - prevention & control; Extraction processes; Flowers & plants; Fluorescence; Food industries; Food toxicology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Fungi; General pharmacology; HPLC; LC/MS; Limit of Detection; Mass spectrometry; Medical sciences; Medicine, Chinese Traditional; mycotoxins; ochratoxin A; Ochratoxins - analysis; Ochratoxins - chemistry; Ochratoxins - isolation & purification; Ochratoxins - toxicity; Penicillium - isolation & purification; Pharmacognosy. Homeopathy. Health food; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Plant Structures - chemistry; Plant Structures - microbiology; plants; Plants, Medicinal - chemistry; Plants, Medicinal - microbiology; Reproducibility of Results; Signal to noise ratio; Solid Phase Extraction; Spectrometry, Fluorescence; Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization; survey; Tandem Mass Spectrometry
• ISSN: 1944-0049; 1944-0057
• DOI: 10.1080/19440041003647122

Traditional Chinese medicinal plants (TCMPs), commonly used as spices, additives or foods, are also widely used in China to prevent and cure human disease. Due to their provenance, TCMPs may be contaminated by various fungal species, including ochratoxigenic fungi, during growth, collection, transportation and, especially, storage. A reliable method for the determination of ochratoxin A (OTA) in TCMPs of different origins was developed to monitor OTA levels in China. Analyses involved the extraction of OTA by methanol/water, immunoaffinity column (IAC) clean-up and HPLC quantification with fluorescence detection (FLD). Positive results were further confirmed by LC-ESI-MS/MS. The limit of detection (LOD) was 0.3 µg kg −1 , based on a signal-to-noise ratio of 3 : 1. Among the total of 57 TCMPs samples collected from six different areas, 31 were visibly moldy due to inappropriate storage; 26 sample, purchased from local TCMPs markets, were not visibly moldy. The results showed that 23 of the visibly moldy samples and two of the not visibly moldy were contaminated with OTA at levels ranging 1.2-158.7 and 2.5-5.6 µg kg −1 , respectively. This is the first report of the natural occurrence of OTA in TCMPs.