High sensitive method for the detection of aflatoxins in extract from Chinese medicinal herb

Objective To establish a rapid method of high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC) plus pre-column derivatization for the determination of aflatoxins(AFT) in Chinese medicine herbal extract.Methods The Chinese medicinal herbs were extracted with methanol and the extract was cleaned up with a solid phase extraction column.The analytes were eluted on C18 column with different proportion(15%-30%) acetonitrile,water gradient elution.Results The spiked recoveries were 90%-103.2%.The AFT limits of detection were 0.09 ppb(G1),0.02 ppb(B2),0.03 ppb(B1),0.04 ppb(G2).The results were lower than those of the previous study.Conclusion The modified method was validated by the analysis of a certified reference material and shown to be useful for the determination of aflatoxins in herbal samples of high acidity.