Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Complutense University of Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain.
Laboratory of Foodomics, Institute of Food Science Research (CIAL, CSIC-UAM), Nicolás Cabrera 9, 28049 Madrid, Spain.
J Chromatogr A. 2021 Jul 5;1648:462180. doi: 10.1016/j.chroma.2021.462180. Epub 2021 Apr 27.
Edible insects are widely consumed in Africa, Asia, Oceania and Latin America, but less commonly so in Western countries. Since the turn of the millennium, however, entomophagy has aroused growing interest worldwide in response to the increasing scarcity of food resources. In fact, edible insects can be a source of high-quality protein, and also of fat, energy, minerals and vitamins. However, the lack of regulatory guidelines for microbiologically or chemically hazardous agents potentially present in these new foods (e.g., mycotoxins) may make their consumption unsafe. In this work, we developed an environmentally friendly analytical method using natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES or natural DES) in combination with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) for the simultaneous determination of six mycotoxins of great concern owing to their toxic effects on humans and animals (namely, fumonisin B, fumonisin B, T-2 toxin, HT-2 toxin, ochratoxin A and mycophenolic acid) in insect-based food products. The target mycotoxins were co-extracted from cricket flour by using the optimum DES composition (namely, a mixture of choline chloride and urea, in a 1:2 mole ratio, containing 15% water which resulted in the highest extraction recoveries for all toxins). An experimental design method (Fractional Factorial Design (FFD) was used to examine the influence of the operational variables DES volume and water content, amount of sample, extraction time and extraction temperature on the extraction efficiency for each mycotoxin. Under optimum conditions, extraction recoveries were close to 100% except for fumonisin B (70%) and T-2 toxin (50%), with relative standard deviations (RSDs) below 13% in all cases. The proposed NADES-UHPLC-MS/MS method was validated in accordance with the European Commission 2002/657/EC and 2006/401/EC decisions, and used to determine the target compounds in cricket flour, silkworm pupae powder and black cricket powder.
食用昆虫在非洲、亚洲、大洋洲和拉丁美洲广泛食用，但在西方国家则较少食用。然而，自千禧年以来，由于食物资源日益短缺，食虫引起了全世界越来越多的兴趣。事实上，食用昆虫可以是高质量蛋白质的来源，也是脂肪、能量、矿物质和维生素的来源。然而，由于这些新食品中可能存在微生物或化学危害物（例如真菌毒素）的监管指导方针缺乏，其食用可能不安全。在这项工作中，我们开发了一种使用天然深共晶溶剂（NADES 或天然 DES）与超高效液相色谱/串联质谱（UHPLC-MS/MS）相结合的环保分析方法，用于同时测定六种由于对人类和动物具有毒性作用而备受关注的真菌毒素（即伏马菌素 B、伏马菌素 B、T-2 毒素、HT-2 毒素、黄曲霉毒素 A 和麦角酸）在昆虫食品中的含量。目标真菌毒素通过使用最佳 DES 组成（即胆碱氯化物和尿素的混合物，摩尔比为 1:2，并含有 15%的水，这导致所有毒素的提取回收率最高）从蟋蟀粉中共同提取。实验设计方法（分数阶因子设计（FFD）用于检查 DES 体积和含水量、样品量、提取时间和提取温度对每种真菌毒素提取效率的影响。在最佳条件下，除伏马菌素 B（70%）和 T-2 毒素（50%）外，提取回收率接近 100%，所有情况下相对标准偏差（RSD）均低于 13%。该方法符合欧洲委员会 2002/657/EC 和 2006/401/EC 决定，用于测定蟋蟀粉、蚕蛹粉和黑蟋蟀粉中目标化合物。
