Abstract:

A method based on matrix solid-phase dispersion-high performance liquid chromatography tandem quadrupole
linear ion trap mass spectrometry (HPLC-q/LTQ-MS) for the determination of 10 kinds of β-agoinsts in meat and meat
products was presented. Clenbuterol, salbutamol, ractopamine, tulobuterol, terbutaline, clorprenaline, penbutolol, cimaterol
and fenoterol were extracted with acetonitrile, followed by a further clean-up procedure using QuEChERS method. A
multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) as survey scan and an enhanced product ion (EPI) scan as dependent scan were
performed in an information dependent acquisition (IDA) experiment. The identification of the compounds was carried out
by library search with a precursor ion MS-MS library based on EPI spectra at three different collision energies in a positive
mode. The results showed that clenbuterol was in the range of 0.05–0.5 ng/mL, and 9 other kinds of β-agoinsts residues were
in the range of 0.5–5 ng/mL with correlation coefficients (r2) higher than 0.99. The limit of quantification was 0.05 μg/kg for
clenbuterol and 0.5 μg/kg for 9 other kinds of β-agoinsts. The recoveries of spiked standards in pork, casing and luncheon
meat ranged from 85.6% to118.4%, 85.6% to119.2%, and 80.4% to 118.4%, with relative standard deviation (RSD) of
1.47%–14.4%, 2.45%–15.4%, and 1.04%–12.5% (n = 6), respectively. This method can be used for simultaneous analysis of
10 kinds of β-agonists in meat and meat products.

Key words: β-agoinsts, matrix solid-phase dispersion, high performance liquid chromatography tandem quadrupole linear ion trap mass spectrometry (HPLC-q/LTQ-MS), meat and meat products