Determination of Penicillins G and V in Vegetables and Fruits by Exact Masses of Ions of Protonated Adducts with Methanol by Ultra-High-Performance Liquid Chromatography‒Time-of-Flight High Resolution Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

A procedure is developed for the rapid screening and sensitive determination of penicillins G and V in vegetables and fruits using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography‒quadrupole time-of-flight high resolution mass spectrometry for exact masses of ions of protonated penicillin adducts with methanol. A simple and quick method of sample preparation (simplified QuEChERS method) is proposed for the analysis of fruits and vegetables (oranges, lemons, plums, pears, peaches, cabbage, potatoes, onions, carrots, beets, avocados, cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplants). Identification is carried out by the exact ion masses of analytes, retention time, and the pattern of the isotope distribution of ions (mSigma). Because of the significant matrix effect, analysis should be performed by the method of standard additions, by internal standard method (oxacillin), or using matrix grading. The limits of detection were 0.05‒0.3 ng/g, the analytical ranges were 0.2 (0.9)‒10 ng/g (R² ≥ 0.99), the duration of analysis was 15‒20 min, RSD ≤ 10%.