Abstract: A new method for simultaneous determination of eugenol, isoeugenol, methyl eugenol, methyl isoeugenol, aceteugenol and lsoeugenyl acetate residues in aquatic products by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) was developed. The samples were extracted with acetonitrile and purified on an HLB solid phase extraction (SPE) column. Chromatographic separation was achieved on a Shim-pack GIST column (2.1 mm × 50 mm, 2 μm) by linear gradient elution using methanol/water as the mobile phase before analysis by UPLC-MS/MS. The method validation showed that good linearity (R > 0.999) was observed in the range of 1.00–500 ng/mL for the 6 eugenols. The limits of detection (LODs) were between 0.1 and 0.3 μg/kg, and the limits of quantification (LOQs) were between 0.3 and 1.0 μg/kg. The recoveries ranged between 83.9% and 105.4% at three spiked levels (2.00, 5.00, and 10.0 μg/kg) with relative standard deviations (n = 6) between 1.8% and 6.9%. This method proved to be simple, accurate, sensitive, and suitable for the quantitative determination of six eugenol residues in aquatic products.

Key words: ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry; eugenol; solid-phase extraction; aquatic products