Determination of patulin by capillary gas chromatography of the heptafluorobutyrate derivative.

Formation and capillary gas chromatography of patulin heptafluorobutyrate is reported for the first time. The derivative was identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (M+ = 350). Electron-capture detector response for patulin heptafluorobutyrate was linear in the range 0.05 to 0.5 ng. This sensitive and reproducible derivatization technique was applied to the determination of patulin in apple juice by capillary gas chromatography-electron-capture detection. The overall method recovery averaged 84% and less than or equal to 10 micrograms/l could be detected.