Determination furfurals in tea products by QuEChERs-Isotope IS-GC-MS/MS

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to establish a new method for detecting furfurals in tea. Methods: A gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) method was established for the simultaneous determination of furfural, 5-methylfurfural, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural and 2-Acetylfuran in tea. The sample pretreatment method and GC-MS/MS method were optimized. Furfural-D4 was used as the internal standard. The sample was extracted by acetonitrile, treated and purified by QuEChERS method, and determined by GC-MS/MS multi reaction monitoring (MRM). Results: The four furfurals showed good linear relationship in the mass concentration range of 1.25~200.00 μg/L, with the correlation coefficient ≥0.999 0, and the detection limit (S/N=3) was 1 μg/kg, with the recovery range of standard addition of 89.10%~113.02%. Most of the commercially available tea samples were found to contain furfural. Conclusion: This method in the present study is simple, rapid and can eliminate the interference of complex matrix in tea. The result is accurate, reliable and sensitive. It is suitable for the simultaneous determination of four furfurals in tea.

Keywords

• gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (gc-ms/ms)
• tea
• quechers
• furfural
• 5-methylfurfural
• 5-hydroxymethylfurfural
• 2-acetylfuran