Simultaneous determination of seven β2-agonists in human and bovine urine by isotope dilution liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry using compound-specific minimally 13C-labelled analogues

•Determination of seven β2-agonists in human and bovine urine by LC–MS/MS.•Increase of bandpass of the first quadrupole during SRM measurement.•Labelled analogues minimally labelled in 13C minimize isotope effects.•Quantification of all analytes in a single injection without calibration graphs.•Methodology able to quantify ultra-trace concentrations of β2-agonists.

Seven β2-agonist (clenproperol, clenbuterol, salbutamol, bronbuterol, ractopamine, clenpenterol and clencyclohexerol) were determined simultaneously in human and bovine urine by isotope dilution LC–ESI-MS/MS in a triple quadrupole instrument. The method is based on the application of multiple linear regression in combination with compound-specific minimally 13C-labelled analogues. Additionally, the increase of the bandpass of the first quadrupole during the selected reaction monitoring (SRM) measurement procedure allowed the simultaneous quantification of the seven compounds at sub ng g−1 levels in a single chromatogram without resorting to a methodological calibration graph. Recovery values at concentration levels between 5.0 and 0.05 ng g−1 ranged from 95 to 110% in fortified bovine urine and from 91 to 108% in human urine, with relative standard deviations lower than 5% except for salbutamol and ractopamine. The proposed methodology was validated by analyzing the certified reference material BCR-503 (lyophilized bovine urine) certified for clenbuterol and salbutamol. The limits of detection (LOD) for a sample volume of 10 mL of both human and bovine urine was found to be lower than 0.012 ng g−1 for all compounds, except to salbutamol in bovine urine which was of 0.029 ng g−1. The use of compound-specific isotopically labelled analogues minimally labelled in 13C minimized the occurrence of isotope effects and corrected for matrix effects during ESI ionization and can be efficiently applied for the quantification of ultra-trace concentrations of β2-agonists in human and bovine urine.