Determination of halofuginone in eggs by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry after cleanup with immunoaffinity chromatography.

A sensitive and very selective high-performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometric (LC/MS/MS) method for the detection of halofuginone in whole egg has been developed. After deproteinisation with acetonitrile and evaporation of the organic solvent, halofuginone was further isolated by applying immunoaffinity chromatography. The concentrated eluent was injected into the LC/MS/MS system on a C18 column. The precursor ion ([M+H]+) produced by positive electrospray ionisation was selected for fragmentation with argon. Validation parameters such as recovery, linearity and repeatability, decision limit (CCalpha) and detection capability (CCbeta) were determined.