Analysis of alternariol and alternariol monomethyl ether in foodstuffs by molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction and ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

- Analysis of alternariol (AOH) and alternariol monomethyl ether (AME) in foodstuffs.
- Development of a MIP for selective recognition of AOH and AME in complex mixtures.
- Validation of an MISPE-UPLC-MS/MS methodology to measure target compounds in foodstuffs.
- The validated method is in compliance with guidelines set in Decision 2002/657/EC.
- Application of the methodology in commercially available tomato juice and sesame oil samples.

Molecularly imprinted porous polymer microspheres selective to Alternaria mycotoxins, alternariol (AOH) and alternariol monomethyl ether (AME), were synthesized and applied to the extraction of both mycotoxins in food samples. The polymer was prepared using 4-vinylpiridine (VIPY) and methacrylamide (MAM) as functional monomers, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EDMA) as cross-linker and 3,8,9-trihydroxy-6H-dibenzo[b,d]pyran-6-one (S2) as AOH surrogate template. A molecularly imprinted solid phase extraction (MISPE) method has been optimized for the selective isolation of the mycotoxins from aqueous samples coupled to HPLC with fluorescence (λex = 258 nm; λem = 440 nm) or MS/MS analysis. The MISPE method was validated by UPLC-MS/MS for the determination of AOH and AME in tomato juice and sesame oil based on the European Commission Decision 2002/657/EC. Method performance was satisfactory with recoveries from 92.5% to 106.2% and limits of quantification within the 1.1-2.8 µg kg−1 range in both samples.