Rapid and High-Throughput Determination of Sixteen β-agonists in Livestock Meat Using One-Step Solid-Phase Extraction Coupled with UHPLC-MS/MS

Abstract

β-agonists are illegally added to animal feed because they can greatly increase carcasses’ leanness, which impairs the safety of animal-derived foods and indirectly endangers human health. This study aimed to develop an ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) method for determining sixteen β-agonists in livestock meat. The homogenized samples were subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis using β-glucuronidase/sulfatase at 40 °C for 2 h, extracted with acetonitrile containing 1% acetic acid (v/v), and purified by the one-step Qvet-AG extraction column. The residue was redissolved by 0.1% aqueous formic acid/methanol (9:1, v/v) after blow-drying by nitrogen, and then determined by UHPLC-MS/MS. The results demonstrated that the well linearity was in the range of 0.1–50 μg/L with the correlation coefficient (R2) ≥0.9928, and the limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) were 0.01–0.11 μg/kg and 0.04–0.38 μg/kg, respectively. With intraday and interday relative standard deviations (RSDs) being less than 10%, the average recoveries of pork, beef, and lamb at various spiked levels ranged from 62.62–115.93%, 61.35–106.34%, and 62.00–111.83%, respectively. In conclusion, the established method is simple, efficient, sensitive, and suitable for the simultaneous detection of several β-agonist residues in livestock meat.

Analysis of 14 β‐agonists in pork using an automated wooden tip‐based solid‐phase microextraction device and ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

“…In modern analytical chemistry, several instruments, including capillary electrophoresis [11], gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) [12], liquid chromatography (LC)-MS/MS [13,14], and nanosensors [15] have proven themselves preferred techniques for the detection of β-agonists. Among these technologies, LC-MS/MS is characterized by its superior sensitivity, precision, and reproducibility, making it mostly adopted [1,16,17]. To improve the detection and quantification limits of LC-MS/MS and to mitigate matrix effects (MEs) that could bias the detection results, several sample pretreatment methods have been developed.…”

“…β‐agonists represent a class of drugs that are characterized by their phenylethanolamine structure and are primarily used to treat bronchial diseases [1]. Extensive studies in animal models indicate that administration of β‐agonists at levels 5–10 times greater than the recommended therapeutic dose can significantly enhance feed conversion rates and lipolysis while increasing protein synthesis [2].…”

Nafion/Silver Nanoparticles as an Electrochemically Sensitive Interface for the Detection of Ractopamine in Pork Liver

“…To achieve efficient detection, a derivatization reaction must first be performed on Rac, which increases the complexity and uncertainty of the analysis process. LC–MS/MS has been combined with multiple reaction monitoring for the analysis of Rac. , Electrochemical systems offer unique advantages for overcoming the shortcoming of the aforementioned methods. − The apparatus for electrochemical analysis is relatively cheap and easy to operate, and according to a previous study, Rac detection can be completed in 10 min by using this apparatus . The aforementioned apparatus can be made portable by using microfluidic chips or paper microfluidic devices. , Finally, electrochemical analysis has been used for detecting a wide range of biomolecules without the need for pretreatment or separation …”

Analysis of 14 β-agonists in pork using automated wooden tip based SPME device and UPLC-MS/MS

“…β-agonists represent a class of drugs that are characterized by their phenylethanolamine structure, and are primarily used to treat bronchial diseases (Yan et al, 2022). Extensive studies in animal models indicate that administration of β-agonists at levels 5-10 times greater than the recommended therapeutic dose can signi cantly enhance feed conversion rates and lipolysis, while increasing protein synthesis (Juan et al, 2010).…”

“…In modern analytical chemistry, several instruments, including capillary electrophoresis (CE) (He and Fan, 2019), gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) (Cao et al, 2020), liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) (Zhu et al, 2019;Kaufmann et al, 2021), and nanosensors (Li et al, 2020) have proven themselves preferred techniques for the detection of β-agonists. Among these technology, LC-MS/MS is characterized by its superior sensitivity, precision, and reproducibility, making it mostly adopted (Yan et al, 2022;Castilla-Fernández et al, 2019;Hsieh et al, 2023). To improve the detection and quanti cation limits of LC-MS/MS and to mitigate matrix effects that could bias the detection results, several sample pretreatment methods have been developed.…”