Abstract:

In order to determine the residue of plant growth regulators in banana, a method was developed for the simultaneous determination of 8 plant growth regulators residues (PGRs) in banana by using QuEChERS (quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged and safe) purification coupled with ultra high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). Using acetonitrile containing 1% acetic acid (V/V) as extraction solvent, the samples was prepared by the modified QuEChERS method. The chromatographic separation of 8 target compounds was accomplished in an Agilent InfinityLab Poroshell 120 EC-C₁₈ column using methanol and 5 mmol/L ammonium acetate-0.1% formic acid buffer solution as mobile phase by gradient elution at a flow rate of 0.25 mL/min in 10 min. The 8 target compounds were analyzed by using UPLC-MS/MS in selective reaction monitoring (SRM) mode and then were quantified by the matrix matched standard calibration curve method. The method evaluation was done by matrix-matched calibration with linearity ranging from 5 to 100 μg/kg with a correlation coefficient more than 0.999. The detection and quantification limit ranged from 0.03 to 0.6 μg/kg and 0.10 to 2.0 μg/kg, respectively. The average recoveries at three spiked concentration levels of 10, 20, 100 μg/kg for all target compounds in the samples were in the range of 73.5% to 107.2%, with relative standard deviations (RSD) not more than 11%. The method is simple, quick, convenient, sensitive, and can be applied to analyze 8 plant growth regulators in banana. This method will provide a reference for the residue detection of plant growth regulators in other fruits and vegetables.

Key words: QuEChERS, plant growth regulators, ultra high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS), banana