Determination of tropane alkaloids in corn puffs by the LC-MS/MS

Abstract

The interest in tropane alkaloids (TA) as food contaminants is increasing. A sensitive and selective LC-MS/MS method was applied for the analysis of corn puff samples from the Serbian market. Only atropine was quantified in 22% of the samples. In case of scopolamine, although not quantified, it was detected in 22% of the samples. Whether the acute reference dose (ARfD) could be exceeded was checked on a case-by-case basis for the individual products under assessment. Due to their low body weight and relatively high snack consumption, preschool children were at the highest risk of TA exposure. Assuming that the average consumption is 50 g of corn puffs per day, the sample with the highest concentration of TAs (2.05 ?g/kg, 1.58 ?g/kg of atropine) could contribute with 32.0% to the ARfD, of which 24.7% owing to atropine. If the same amount of corn puffs is consumed by older age classes, corresponding exposure contributions to the ARfD would progressively decline, down to 8.4% for adult population. The study revealed no health risk from TAs exposure through the consumption of the corn puffs in Serbian population.

Atropine and Scopolamine in Maize Products from the Retail Stores in the Republic of Serbia

“…The study of the 18 corn puff samples showed that 22.2% of all the samples had atropine (1.03-1.58 μg/kg) and scopolamine (0.29-0.47 μg/kg) detections [15]. Out of the 12 tested popcorn samples in 41.7% atropine (from 5.3 to 28.0 μg/kg) and scopolamine (from 2.1 to 6.3 μg/kg) were detected.…”

“…The ESI source was used with the following settings: drying gas (nitrogen) temperature of 200 • C, drying gas flow rate 16 L/min, nebulizer pressure 30 psi, sheath gas temperature of 300 • C, sheath gas flow 12 L/min, and capillary voltage 3000 V. The detection was performed using the dynamic multiple reactions monitoring mode (dMRM). The Agilent MassHunter software (v.B.10.0 SR1 Agilent Technologies, 2006-2019, Santa Clara, United States) was used for the optimization and quantification [15].…”

“…The fragmentation of the protonated atropine and scopolamine ions yielded three product ions, respectively (Table 2). The most intense MRM transitions for atropine m/z 290.2 > 124.2 and scopolamine 304.2 > 138.2 were monitored for quantification and the second most intense (other three) transitions were used for the confirmation [15]. The study conducted by Vuković et al [44] pointed out that the addition of formic acid to the mobile phase improved ionization efficiency and gave the studied tropane alkaloids a finer peak.…”

“…Tropane alkaloids (TAs) represent a group of more than 200 secondary metabolites that can be found in all parts of the many plant species from the Brassicaceae, Convolvulaceae, Erythroxylaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Proteaceae, and, mainly, the Solanaceae families [14]. The hazardous effects of the TAs on human health are associated with the muscarinic acetylcholine receptors inhibition in the autonomic as well as the central nervous system [15]. TAs can lead to many antimuscarinic effects, such as cardiac dysfunction, mydriasis and accommodation paralysis, inhibition of micturition, decrease in salivary secretion [16][17][18], etc.…”

“…In 2015, Recommendation 2015/976/EU1 in monitoring the TAs presence in food was adopted [33]. In 2016, the maximum atropine and scopolamine levels were limited to 1µg/kg for each alkaloid in cereal-based food for young children and infants [15].…”