Abstract: An ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method for the determination of eight biogenic amines in Huangjiu (rice wine), including histamine, tyramine, putrescine, tryptamine, β-phenylethylamine, cadaverine, spermine and spermidine, was established. Complete separation of the derivatives of eight biogenic amines was achieved on a C18 chromatographic column (100.0 mm × 2.1 mm, 1.7 μm) by gradient elution with acetonitrile-0.1% formic acid in water as the mobile phase. Mass spectral data were obtained in the multi-reaction monitoring mode by electrospray positive ion scanning. The internal standard method was employed for quantification. The results showed that the eight biogenic amines were separated completely within 19 min?and good linearity was obtained for histamine in the range of 2–1 000 ng/mL and for other amines in the range of 1–1 000 ng/mL (r2 > 0.995 1). The limit of detection (LOD) and the limit of quantification (LOQ) of the method were in the range of 0.25–0.5 and 1–2 ng/mL, respectively. The intraday and interday precision of the proposed method was in the range of 0.61%–5.68% and 0.82%–5.00%, respectively. Satisfactory recoveries for spiked rice wine samples were obtained in the range of 83.56%–117.45% with relative standard deviation (RSD) lower than 6.69%.

Key words: rice wine; biogenic amines; derivatization; ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry