Rapid determination of fumonisins B1 and B2 in corn by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry with ultrasonic extraction.

A simple, sensitive, and reliable analytical method is developed for the rapid determination of fumonisin B(1) and fumonisin B(2) in corn by high-performance liquid chromatography-positive electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS-MS). Fumonisin B(1) and fumonisin B(2) are extracted from corn with methanol-water (3:1, v/v) by means of ultrasonic extraction, and directly injected into an LC-MS-MS system after centrifugation. Fumonisin B(1) and fumonisin B(2) are separated on a Zorbax Eclipse XDB-C(18) column with a solution of methanol-water-formic acid as the mobile phase. The method is validated with respect to linearity, accuracy, precision, specificity, and stability. Moreover, the method was applied to real samples and demonstrated to be suitable for the determination of fumonisin B(1) and fumonisin B(2) in corn. The total time required for the analysis of one sample was ~30 min.