Rapid determination of aflatoxins in raw peanuts by liquid chromatography with postcolumn iodination and modified minicolumn cleanup.

A method is described for rapid cleanup followed by reverse-phase liquid chromatographic (LC) quantitation of aflatoxins in raw peanuts. A modified minicolumn cleanup is used for sample preparation, and a preliminary estimation of aflatoxin content by minicolumn can be made so that highly contaminated samples can be diluted before LC analysis. The use of the simple, quick minicolumn cleanup eliminates the need for further column or cartridge cleanup, thus greatly reducing sample preparation time. Sensitive quantitation is achieved using a phenyl column, a mobile phase of water-tetrahydrofuran (80 + 20, v/v), and postcolumn derivatization with water-saturated iodine followed by fluorescence detection. The recoveries of aflatoxins B1, B2, G1, and G2 from peanut meal spiked at 3 levels ranged from 71.7 to 88.3% (average 80%) with coefficients of variation from 2.7 to 10.4%.