To establish a rapid method for the determination of 21 kinds of mycotoxins in spices, including conventional mycotoxins and 5 kinds of emerging mycotoxins such as alternariol monomethyl ether by solid-phase extraction pretreatment coupled with ultra performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

Sample extracts were purified by dispersive solid-phase extraction, separated on an HSS T3 column. Gradient elution was performed using a mobile phase consisting of aqueous solution containing 0.1% formic acid and 5 mmol/L ammonium acetate, and methanol solution containing 0.1% formic acid and 3 mmol/L ammonium acetate. Electrospray ionization was adopted with rapid switching between positive and negative ion modes. Multiple reaction monitoring mode was used for data acquisition, and external standard method was applied for quantitative analysis.

All 21 kinds of mycotoxins showed good linear relationships within a certain concentration range, and the correlation coefficients (r) were all no less than 0.99. The limits of detection were 0.10–6.00 µg/kg, and the limits of quantitation were 0.30–22.00 µg/kg. The average recovery rates of the target substances were 78.5% to 100.5%, and the relative standard deviations were 1.50% to 7.98%.

The method has excellent accuracy and precision, and can be used for rapid and accurate detection of many mycotoxins in spices.