A rapid method for simultaneous determination of zearalenone, α-zearalenol, β-zearalenol, zearalanone, α-zearalanol and β-zearalanol in traditional Chinese medicines by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

A rapid and reliable ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC–MS/MS) method for simultaneous determination of zearalenone (ZEN), α-zearalenol (α-ZOL), β-zearalenol (β-ZOL), zearalanone (ZAN), α-zearalanol (α-ZAL) and β-zearalanol (β-ZAL) in traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) was developed. The development of the method and investigations of the matrix influence were described in particular. After evaluation of the matrix effects of different TCMs, i.e., rhizomes and roots, seeds, flowers, grasses and leaves, by the post-extraction spiked method, a reliable sample clean-up method based on home-made clean-up cartridges, a suitable internal standard and the matrix calibration were combined using to minimize the matrix effects to ensure the accuracy of the method. The established method was further validated by determining the linearity (R2 ≥ 0.9990), sensitivity (limit of quantitation 0.11–0.99 ng mL−1), average recovery (86.6–113.5%) and precision (relative standard deviation ≤13.5%). It was shown to be a suitable method for simultaneous determination of ZEN, α-ZOL, β-ZOL, ZAN, α-ZAL and β-ZAL in different TCMs. Finally, the established method was successfully applied to the determination of the six mycotoxins in various TCMs and the results were presented to provide relevant insights to researchers in TCM analysis.