Determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in soy isoflavone nutraceutical products by gas chromatography coupled to triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry.

Thirteen polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons have been determined in soy-based nutraceutical products. First, an optimization of extraction procedure was performed, and a solid-liquid extraction assisted by sonication and a dilute and shoot procedure were compared, selecting the dilute and shoot approach for the extraction of target compounds, utilizing a mixture of acetone/n-hexane (1:1 v/v) as extractant solvent. After this, a clean-up step was needed bearing in mind the complexity of these matrices. Dispersive solid-phase extraction, using a mixture of C18 and Zr-Sep+ (25 mg/mL each) was used. The separation was achieved by gas chromatography and detection with triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry. For quantification purposes, matrix-matched calibration was used. The validation was applied at three concentration levels (20, 100 and 250 μg/kg), obtaining recoveries between 70 and 120% and precision values equal to or lower than 23%. Limits of detection and quantification were below 8 and 20 μg/kg, respectively. The method was applied in 11 samples, detecting five polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons at concentrations ranging from 4.1 to 18.5 μg/kg.