Abstract:

A sensitive and selective method was developed for the determination of residues of α-asarone and β-asarone
as the main components of calamus oil in milk powder, mung bean cake, pork, smoked fish, and seasoning powder. The
residues of α-asarone and β-asarone in the test samples were extracted with acetonitrile. The extract was cleaned up with
a silica gel solid phase extraction column, analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) equipped with a
fluorescence detector, and quantified by external standard method. Milk powder, green bean cake, pork, smoked fish and
seasoning powder were chosen as the representative samples. The limit of quantification (LOQ) (RSN > 10) was 0.01 mg/kg
in all these samples. The average recoveries of α-asarone and β-asarone at three spiked levels (0.01, 0.05 and 0.50 mg/kg)
ranged from 78.2% to 99.4% and 80.8% to 105.6%, respectively, with relative standard deviations (RSDs) between 1.6%
and 10.3%. The method can meet the analytical requirements for trace asarones in foods.

Key words: α-asarone, β-asarone, food, solid phase extraction (SPE), high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)