Determination of aflatoxins in groundnut meal by high-performance liquid chromatography: a comparison of two methods of derivatisation of aflatoxin B1.

A comparison has been made between pre-column and post-column derivatisation of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) during estimation by high-performance liquid chromatography of this toxin in groundnut meal. The effect of the use of different derivatisation reagents on the quantification of aflatoxin B2 (AFB2) has also been evaluated. Both AFB1 and AFB2 were analysed at eight levels of artificial contamination. Five replicate analyses were carried out at each level on both groundnut meal extract (acetone-water, 85:15, v/v) and extraction solvent alone. A statistical evaluation of the results gave limits of detection of 1.1 and 0.3 micrograms/kg for AFB1 and AFB2 respectively, using pre-column derivatisation compared with 1.5 and 0.8 micrograms/kg for the post-column method. Recoveries of over 90% from the spiked groundnut meal extracts were achieved for both derivatisation methods.