Development of a high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry based analysis for the simultaneous quantification of various Alternaria toxins in wine, vegetable juices and fruit juices

Abstract

An analytical method based on high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) detection for the simultaneous quantification of 12 Alternaria toxins in wine, vegetable juices and fruit juices was developed. Excellent chromatographic performance was demonstrated for tenuazonic acid (TeA) in a multi-analyte method. This comprehensive study is also the first to report the determination of TeA, alternariol (AOH), alternariol monomethyl ether (AME), tentoxin (TEN) and altenuene (ALT), altertoxin I (ATX-I), altertoxin II (ATX-II), altenuisol (ATL), iso-altenuene (isoALT), altenuic acid III (AA-III) and the AAL toxins TB1 und TB2 in samples from the German market. Several types of HPLC columns were tested for the liquid chromatographic separation of the toxins of interest that widely differ in their polarities. The focus was on gaining suitable retention while avoiding derivatization steps especially for TeA and AA-III. Three atmospheric pressure ionization techniques used with liquid chromatography (electrospray, chemical and photo ionization) were tested to obtain the best selectivity and sensitivity. Samples were diluted with sodium hydrogen carbonate buffer and extracted on a diatomaceous earth solid phase extraction cartridge. Method validation was carried out by using tomato juice, citrus juice and white wine as blank matrices. Limits of detection ranged from 0.10 to 0.59μgL⿿1 and limits of quantification ranged from 0.4⿿3.1μgL⿿1 depending on the toxin and matrix. Recoveries were around 100±9% for all toxins except stemphyltoxin III (STTX-III) and altenusin (ALS) due to instability during sample clean up. Matrix-induced effects leading to ion suppression especially for ATX-I, ATX-II and AA-III were investigated. Relative standard deviations of repeatability (RSDr) and intermediate reproducibility (RSDR) were ⿤9.3 and ⿤17.1, respectively, for the toxins in different matrices at levels of 5 and 30μgL⿿1. Finally, 103 commercially obtained wine and juice samples from the German market in 2015 were analysed. TeA was found most frequently (68% of all analysed samples) in concentrations of up to 60.0μgL⿿1. AOH, AME and TEN were detected in fewer samples (37%, 16% and 30%) at lower concentrations of up to 8.2, 1.5 and 10.3μgL⿿1, respectively. AA-III and ATL were detected for the first time in 3% and 17% of food all samples, in concentrations of up to 6.0μgL⿿1 and 5.9μgL⿿1, respectively.