Determination of Six Paraben Residues in Fresh-cut Vegetables Using QuEChERS with Multi-walled Carbon Nanotubes and High-Performance Liquid Chromatography–Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Optimization of double-vortex-assisted matrix solid-phase dispersion for the rapid determination of paraben preservative residues in leafy vegetables

“…Our results for MeP, the most commonly detected paraben preservatives in foodstuff, are similar to those reported by Liao et al for samples collected in Albany, New York, USA, 12 and Song et al in Beijing, China. 1 Liao et al found MeP in vegetable samples from Albany with concentrations ranging from 0.041 to 69.9 ng g À1 (d.w.), 3 whereas MeP was detected in vegetables with concentrations ranging from n.d. to 81.0 ng g À1 (d.w.) in Beijing, China. 1 Moreover, our results for MeP have higher concentration than those in vegetable samples collected from Chongqing, China, as reported by Zhou et al, 8 and the samples collected from Seville, Spain, as reported by Aparicio et al 10 The MeP concentrations from the vegetables in Chongqing ranged from 0.9 to 5.0 ng g À1 (d.w.); 8 and those in the samples from Seville ranged from 0.2 to 4.4 ng g À1 (d.w.).…”

“…Parabens, a group of alkyl esters of p-hydroxybenzoic acid, are commonly employed as preservatives in foodstuff due to their broad spectrum of action against microorganisms, low cost, and high water solubility. [1][2][3] Their widespread applications in foodstuff may be indicative of high levels of exposure to humans and as harmful to the environment. Parabens have been detected in many environmental matrices worldwide, such as in indoor air/dust, wastewater, aquatic biota, and soil/sediments, all of which have been reviewed by Piao et al, 4 and Ocaña-González et al 5 Even more worrisome, they have also been found in human urine, breast milk, and blood.…”

“…Therefore, these emerging contaminants have the potential to accumulate in roots and leaves, which can further jeopardize human health upon ingestion. Various extraction methods, such as solidliquid extraction, 2,3 QuEChERS (quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe) 1,8 and ultrasound-assisted extraction 9,10 have been reported for the extraction of parabens in different vegetable samples. Aer extraction, various clean-up procedures, such as NH 2 -solid-phase extraction (SPE), 2,3 multi-walled carbon nanotubes SPE, 1 dispersive solid-phase extraction (d-SPE), 10 and dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME), 9 have been applied.…”

Environmental contamination status with common ingredients of household and personal care products

“…Notably, paraben concentrations showed a maximum of 2530 ng/g fresh foods . In contrast, a study tested samples from farmers' markets in China, and only one sample was positive for MeP, at 81 ng/g (Song et al, 2017). Parabens are also used as preservatives in enteral and parenteral medications, and particularly in multidose vial antibiotics, local anaesthetics, corticosteroids, vitamins, diuretics, insulin, heparin, antihypertensives, chemotherapeutics and haloperidol (Fransway et al, 2019).…”

New phases for analytical scale extraction from plants: Current and future trends

“…For instance, MWCNTs have been successfully applied to remove interferences from vegetables submitted to the QuEChERS procedure for the determination of exogenous compounds as paraben residues. MWCNTs provided up to a 94% reduction in chlorophyll and lower matrix effects compared to the commonly used primary-secondary amine (PSA) sorbent thus making the extracts fully compatible with HPLC-MS/MS analyses [119].…”