Determination of 3-chloro-1,2-propanediol in biological samples by quick-easy-cheap-effective-rugged-and-safe extraction coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and its biodistribution in rats

3-Chloro-1,2-propanediol is a common food contaminant, but reports on its determination in biological tissues are lacking. In the present study, a method was developed to detect 3-chloro-1,2-propanediol contents in rat tissues by quick-easy-cheap-effective-rugged-and-safe extraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis. Biological samples were extracted with ethyl acetate and purified with adsorbents. The optimized adsorbent for each sample was selected from 4–5 combinations of N-propylethylenediamine, octadecylsilane, graphitized carbon black, strong anion exchange, and florisil. Extracted 3-chloro-1,2-propanediol was derivatized with heptafluorobutyric anhydride and subjected to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. This method had good linearity (correlation coefficients >0.99) in the range of 2–2000 ng/g for blood, kidney, liver, testis, and brain samples. The limits of detection were under 0.8 ng/g; the limits of quantification were 2 ng/g; the recovery rates were 85%–102%; and the matrix effects were 1.98%–7.67%. This method also had good precision. The dynamic changes in 3-chloro-1,2-propanediol in rats gavaged with 20 mg/kg b.w. for 24 h were detected using this method. The 3-chloro-1,2-propanediol content in each tissue sharply increased to a peak, rapidly decreased within 2 h, and stabilized at 12 h. 3-Chloro-1,2-propanediol persisted in the kidney, testis, and liver 24 h after gavage.