Lin Runfeng, Peng Jing, Zhu Yingjie, Dong Suhe, Jiang Xin, Shen Danning, Li Jiaxin, Zhu Peihong, Mao Jie, Wang Na, He Kun
National Center of Biomedical Analysis, Beijing 100850, China.
Foods. 2025 Mar 26;14(7):1147. doi: 10.3390/foods14071147.
Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) are a class of nitrogen-containing basic organic compounds that are frequently detected in foods and herbal medicines. Owing to their potential hepatotoxic, genotoxic, and carcinogenic properties, PAs have become a significant focus for monitoring global food safety. In this study, an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) method was developed for the detection and analysis of three foods (tea, honey, and milk) susceptible to PA contamination. This optimized method effectively separated and detected three types of PAs, namely, three pairs of isomers and two pairs of chiral compounds. The limits of detection (LODs) and limits of quantification (LOQs) were determined to be 0.015-0.75 and 0.05-2.5 µg/kg, respectively, with the relative standard deviations (RSDs) of both the interday and intraday precisions remaining below 15%. The average PA recoveries from the honey, milk, and tea matrices fell within the ranges of 64.5-103.4, 65.2-112.2, and 67.6-107.6%, respectively. This method was also applied to 77 samples collected from 33 prefecture-level cities across 16 provinces and included 40 tea, 6 milk, 8 honey, 14 spice, and 9 herbal medicine samples. At least one PA was detected in twenty-three of the samples, with herbal medicines exhibiting the highest total PA content. The obtained results indicate that the developed method demonstrated good repeatability and stability in the detection and quantitative analyses of PAs in food- and plant-derived samples. This method is therefore expected to provide reliable technical support for food safety risk monitoring.
吡咯里西啶生物碱（PAs）是一类含氮的碱性有机化合物，在食品和草药中经常被检测到。由于其潜在的肝毒性、遗传毒性和致癌特性，PAs已成为全球食品安全监测的一个重要关注点。在本研究中，开发了一种超高效液相色谱-串联质谱（UHPLC-MS/MS）方法，用于检测和分析三种易受PA污染的食品（茶叶、蜂蜜和牛奶）。这种优化后的方法有效地分离并检测了三种类型的PAs，即三对异构体和两对手性化合物。检测限（LOD）和定量限（LOQ）分别确定为0.015 - 0.75和0.05 - 2.5 μg/kg，日间和日内精密度的相对标准偏差（RSD）均保持在15%以下。蜂蜜、牛奶和茶叶基质中PA的平均回收率分别在64.5 - 103.4%、65.2 - 112.2%和67.6 - 107.6%范围内。该方法还应用于从16个省份的33个地级市采集的77个样品，包括40个茶叶、6个牛奶、8个蜂蜜、14个香料和9个草药样品。在23个样品中至少检测到一种PA，草药中的总PA含量最高。所得结果表明，所开发的方法在食品和植物源样品中PAs的检测和定量分析中具有良好的重复性和稳定性。因此，该方法有望为食品安全风险监测提供可靠的技术支持。
