Simultaneous quantification of three tropane alkaloids in goji berries by cleanup of the graphene/hexagonal boron nitride hybrids and ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

Abstract

A modified quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged and safe method was established for simultaneous determination of atropine, anisodamine, and scopolamine in goji berries by using ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry. The graphene/hexagonal boron nitride hybrids were prepared and first applied as a cleanup adsorbent. Compared to classical cleanup adsorbent (C18), the graphene/hexagonal boron nitride hybrids as adsorbent had better extraction efficiency for the detection of analytes. Under the optimal conditions, the proposed analytical method achieved satisfactory linearity (R2 > 0.995), and obtained desirable recoveries ranged from 77.4 to 94.0% with the relative standard deviation of 1.2–6.1% at the concentration levels of 3.2–13.4 µg/kg. The limits of quantitation of atropine, anisodamine, and scopolamine were, respectively, 3.2, 4.6, and 4.5 µg/kg with linearity ranged from 3.2 to 25.4 µg/kg. The modified quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe sample preparation with ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry method was successfully applied to evaluate the safety of goji berries collected from 30 plant areas in China, suggesting its applicability and suitability for the routine analysis of three tropane alkaloids in goji berries.

Multiple independent losses of the biosynthetic pathway for two tropane alkaloids in the Solanaceae family

“…Early research indicated the presence of scopolamine in L. chinense and L. halimifolium within the tribe Lycieae 61,62 . However, all subsequent studies focusing on the detection of HS within this tribe failed to uncover their presence in any species or sample 47,[63][64][65][66][67][68] . Consequently, we confirmed L. chinense as a representative of the non-HS-producing Lycieae via additional examination (Supplementary Fig.…”

Emerging Issues on Tropane Alkaloid Contamination of Food in Europe

“…Zhao and Shi (2020) investigated 30 goji berry batches from different production areas in China and reported the presence of trace levels of atropine in 29 of the samples (below the Limit of Detection (<LOD-23.4 µg/kg d.w.). Scopolamine and anisodamine could not be detected in the samples (LOD 1.5 µg/kg d.w.) [ 45 ].…”