Abstract:The abuse of plant growth regulator (s) in bean sprouts is a major factor that affects the safety of bean sprouts for consumption. In this study, a high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS) method was developed for the determination of 3-indoleacetic acid, 4-chlorphenoxyacetic acid, 6-benzyl adenine and gibberellin in bean sprouts, in which multiple-reaction monitoring mode was employed for simultaneous detection of target analytes and external standards were used for quantification. Test samples were obtained for HPLC-MS analysis, through ultrasonic-assisted extraction, NaCl-induced salting-out, and purification by dispersive solid-phase extraction (to yield organic phase). The detection limit of the 4 plant growth regulators was 5 μg/kg, and the limit of quantitation (LOQ) was 10 μg/kg. The recovery was in range of 65.1%~109.8% and the relative standard deviation (RSD) was in range of 1.49%~10.08% for soybean sprouts and mung bean sprouts when the spiking experiments were performed at the levels of LOQ, 2 LOQ and 10 LOQ with six replicates at each level. The recovery was. Enhanced product ion scan was performed along with the multiple-reaction monitoring in order to reduce false positive results during analysis. This method can be used to monitor the contents of 3-indole acetic acid, 4-chlorphenoxyacetic acid, 6-benzyl adenine and gibberellin in the commercial bean sprouts, and provides technical support for ensuring consumer safety.
