Abstract: Abstract: To establish a method of Catecholamines(CAs) for simultaneously qualitative and quantitative analysis in livestock meat by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The samples were homogenization extracted with perchloric acid solution, purified by PCX cartridge,the mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile and formic acid in water（1∶99，V/V）．The analytes were ionized with positive electrospray ( ESI+) and detected in the multiple reaction monitoring mode(MRM) and quantified by the external standard method. The results indicated that good linearity over the concentration range of 40-1000 ng/mL was observed for all analytes with correlation coefficients greater than 0.99. The limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) were 10 and 40 μg/kg, respectively. The average recoveries of the CAs ranged from 75.48% to 85.36% with relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 1.2%-4.2% (n = 6). The method is sensitive, simple, rapid and accurate and can meet the requirements of practical analysis.

Key words: Catecholamines, livestock meat, β-adrenergic agonist, solid phase extraction, ultra performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS)