A fast and accurate isotope dilution GC-IT-MS/MS method for determination of eugenol in different tissues of fish: Application to a depletion study in mandarin fish.

An accurate, rapid and effective method was established for determination of eugenol in plasma, muscle, skin, liver, kidney and gill of fish using gas chromatography-ion trap tandem mass spectrometry. Samples of muscle, skin, liver, kidney and gill were prepared using the modified QuEChERS (quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged and safe) procedure, and a plasma sample was prepared by a liquid-liquid extraction procedure. Eugenol was monitored in <7 min using an electron-ionization source in MS/MS mode and quantified by an internal standard of eugenol-d . The limit of detection was 5.0 μg/kg, and the limit of quantification was 10.0 μg/kg. The calibration curve was linear in the range of 5-1000 μg/L (R = 0.9996). Intra- and inter-day precisions of eugenol expressed as relative standard deviation were within 9.74%, and the accuracy exhibited a relative error ranging from -2.20 to 8.89%. The developed method was successfully used to study the elimination regularity of eugenol in mandarin fish.