Determination of 10 mycotoxin contaminants in Panax notoginseng by ultra performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

To ensure the quality and safety of Panax notoginseng, a method for the simultaneous determination of 10 mycotoxins in Panax notoginseng was developed using ultra performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). The sample was extracted with acetonitrile and purified by HLB multifunction cleanup column. The separation was performed on a Phenomenex Kinetex XB-C18 column by gradient elution using methanol and 5 mmol·L^-1 ammonium acetate as mobile phase. The targeted compounds were detected in MRM mode by mass spectrometry with electrospray ionization (ESI) source operated in both positive and negative ionization modes. The linear relationships of the 10 mycotoxins were good in their respective linear ranges. The correlation coefficients (r) ranged from 0.998 1 to 1.000 0. The LOQs of the 10 mycotoxins were between 0.15 and 8.6 μg·kg^-1. The average recoveries ranged from 73.8% to 107.0% with relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 0.10%-10.9%. The results demonstrated that the proposed method was sensitive and accurate, and suitable for the mycotoxins quantification in Panax notoginseng.