To establish a method for the determination of three datura alkaloids including atropine, hyoscine and racanisodamine in poisoned samples by ultra performance liquid chromatography-hybrid triple quadrupole linear ion trap-mass spectrometry(UPLC-QqLIT-MS), and provide scientific basis for the quick handling of food poisoning event and the clinical treatment of patients.

Blood, urine and residual food samples from patients were added with borax-NaOH buffer solution, and the analytes were extracted using ethyl acetate, dried with nitrogen, and dissolved in the initial mobile phase. Separation was achieved on a DikmaLeapsil C18 chromatographic column (2.1 mm×150 mm, 2.7 μm) with gradient elution using a mobile phase consisting of water and acetonitrile (containing 0.1% formic acid and 2 mmol/L ammonium formate). The quantitative determination was carried out by using the multi reaction monitoring mode, and the qualitative analysis of the suspected positive results was carried out by using the enhanced product ion (EPI) scanning mode.

The three alkaloids exhibited good linearity (r ≥ 0.997 1) within the concentration range of 0.5-100 μg/L across different matrices. The detection limits ranged from 0.05 to 0.12μg/L.The average recoveries were 91.9%-110.0%, with relative standard deviations of 1.16%-9.03%. The EPI scanning function can effectively eliminated false positive results by confirming suspicious positives.

This method is simple, rapid, and accurate for qualitative and quantitative determination of atropine, hyoscine, and racanisodamine in poisoned samples. It effectively reduces false positives and is suitable for screening and confirmation of datura alkaloid poisoning.