A rapid method for sensitive profiling of folates from plant leaf by ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem quadrupole mass spectrometer

•We report a rapid method for sensitive profiling of folates from plant leaf.•This is the first application of QqQ mass spectrometer to analyze 7 folate vitamers.•This is the first report of separate 7 folate vitamers within 5 min run time.•Folate profiling require only 100 mg fresh leaf sample.•No laborious and time consuming clean-up.

Previous published methods for the analysis of folates are time consuming because of lengthy sample extraction, clean-up and total running time. This study details the development and validation of a rapid, sensitive and robust method that combines a simple extraction step with ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem quadrupole mass spectrometry. Here, we reported application of a tandem quadrupole mass spectrometer to analyze maximum seven vitamers of folate from plant origin. The analytical performance was evaluated by linearity, sensitivity, precision, recovery test and analysis of certified reference materials. The limit of detection and limit of quantification ranged between 0.003 and 0.021 μg/100 g FW and between 0.011 and 0.041 μg/100 g FW, respectively; the recovery and precession ranged from 71.27 to 99. 01% and from 1.7 to 7.8% RSD, respectively, depending upon folate vitamers. This newly developed and validated method is rapid (a chromatographic run time of 5 min), easy to be performed (no laborious and time consuming clean-up) and can be used to simultaneously analyze seven vitamers of folate from plant sources.