Selective removal of ATP degradation products from food matrices II: Rapid screening of hypoxanthine and inosine by molecularly imprinted matrix solid-phase dispersion for evaluation of fish freshness

•Novel water compatible MIP–MSPD method for extraction of HYP and INO from fish.•The total analysis time was significantly reduced with this sample pre-treatment.•Low consumption of organic solvents and simple instrumentation were involved.•Great recoveries in the 103.1–113.4% range were reached with an average RSD≤4.2%.

A water compatible molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP), synthesized using theophylline (TPH) as dummy-template and acrylamide (AM) as functional monomer, has been employed as supporting material in matrix solid-phase dispersion combined with ultra performance liquid chromatography–photodiode array detection (MSPD–UPLC–PDA) for selective determination of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) derivatives in fish samples. ATP degradation products are used as freshness index for assessment of fish quality. The solid sample was directly blended with MIP in MSPD procedure resulting in sample disruption and subsequent adsorption of the compounds on the MIP. By using n-hexane and ammonium hydroxide aqueous solution at pH 9 as the washing and elution solvent, respectively, satisfactory recoveries and clean chromatograms have been obtained. Good linearity for hypoxanthine (HYP) and inosine (INO) has been observed with correlation coefficients (R2) of 0.9987 and 0.9986, respectively. The recoveries of the two ATP derivatives at three different spiked levels ranged from 106.5% to 113.4% for HYP and from 103.1% to 111.2% for INO, with average relative standard deviations lower than 4.2% in both cases. This new method, which is rapid, simple and sensitive, can be used as an alternative tool to conventional tedious methods.

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