QuEchERS Technology And Its Research Progress

 Compared with most traditional pretreatment methods, QuEchERS has the following advantages:

1. For most polarities, the recovery rate of the spiked materials and non-volatile materials is high, the reproducibility is good, and the accuracy and precision are high;
2. Realize efficient, rapid sample processing, high analysis throughput, saving time and effort;
3. Simple operation and low test skill requirements;
4. The space required for the experiment is small, and it can be completed only in the PTFE centrifuge tube. The reagents, utensils, and devices used are all
basic configuration items in the laboratory, low analysis cost;
5. The method is rigorous and reliable, which is removed during the extraction and purification process most organic acids;
6. The amount of organic solvent is less, and the entire extraction process effectively avoids the operator and organic reagents’ direct contact, reducing the harm to the staff.

After the QuEchERS method has been widely used in the detection of pesticide residues in the field of fruits and vegetables, scientific researchers in various countries have begun to try to use it in the field of veterinary drug residue detection. As a salting-out agent, anhydrous magnesium sulfate is used to remove the moisture in the matrix and the organic phase.

The difference is that continuous improvement of methods has been widely used in veterinary drug multi-residue analysis. Using 1% acetonitrile acetate as the extraction solvent and PSA and C18 as adsorbents, the improved QuEchERS method was used to extract and separate the target compound, and a pretreatment method for 14 veterinary drugs QuEchERS in an aquatic product matrix combined with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography was established.

Tandem mass spectrometry is a simple, accurate, and highly sensitive simultaneous detection method. By adopting improved QuEchERS pretreatment technology combined with UPLC-MS / MS, and analytical detection method for simultaneously detecting 121 kinds of veterinary drugs in 10 categories of pork was established. The 121 target compounds showed good linearity in the concentration range of 0.02-40 μg / L, the linear correlation coefficient R2> 0.9900, and the limit of quantification was between 0.05-10 μg / kg.

The method of QuEchERS technology combined with liquid chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry for the determination of 77 drugs in feed including mycotoxins, banned veterinary drugs, and ergot alkaloids were established. The results show that the recovery rate of the method is between 80% and 120%, the relative standard deviation is less than 20%, and the limit of quantification of the method of prohibiting veterinary drugs is less than 12.5 μg / kg, which meets the requirements of analysis and detection. Established a QuEchERS technique combined with LC-MS / MS for the determination of ractopamine residues in pork, with 0.1% acetic acid.

Acetonitrile is the extraction solvent, anhydrous magnesium sulfate and sodium chloride are the dehydrating agents. C18 and PSA are used for purification and impurity removal and are quantified by the internal standard method. At three levels of addition of 5, 10, and 15 µg / kg, the recovery rate is between 70% and 110%, RSD ≤ 13%, and LOD and LOQ are 1.5 µg / kg and 2.5 µg / kg, respectively.

Since the development of the QuEchERS method, due to its advantages of simplicity, speed, efficiency, low price, and high sensitivity, it has also been applied to the detection of other residues in food substrates such as livestock and poultry products, aquatic products, eggs, milk, and chlorination in soil and tobacco Extraction and purification of pollutants. It can be seen that the application of QuEchERS pre-processing technology is more and more extensive, and there will be huge application prospects in the future.

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