Study of the occurrence of toxic alkaloids in forage grass by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

The toxic alkaloids in forage grass present a serious health hazard to humans and livestock, especially ergot alkaloids (EAs), pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) and tropane alkaloids (TAs). Hence, there is a need for a simultaneous method that allows these dangerous plant toxins to be determined. A simple and effective method was developed to determine fifteen toxic alkaloids (EAs, PAs and TAs) in forage grass using the QuEChERS method and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The developed method was validated with average recoveries ranging from 63.10 to 102.10%, and relative standard deviations lower than or equal to 6.39% were obtained. Good linearity over the concentration range of 10-600 mu g/kg dry matter (DM) was observed for the target alkaloids. The determination coefficients R 2 calculated for each of the matrix calibration curves were greater than 0.99. The limits of detection and quantification were 5 mu g/kg DM and 10 mu g/kg DM, respectively. The reproducibility of the method was verified in three laboratories: all of the mean recoveries of 15 alkaloids were higher than 60%, and the relative standard deviations in alkaloids between laboratories were all less than 14.24%. The proposed method was applied to analyse 134 forage grass samples from the meadow steppe of Inner Mongolia to monitor toxic alkaloids. A significant difference in the frequency of contamination was found between different herbage species and different regions. (c) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

A simple and effective method was developed to determine fifteen toxic alkaloids in forage grass using the QuEChERS method and LC-MS/MS. The method was validated with high accuracy and reproducibility, making it suitable for monitoring and analyzing toxic alkaloids.