| Abstract: | Liquid chromatography (LC) in combination with tandem mass spectrometry (MS-MS) has been applied to the separation and detection of 10 different sulfonamides in honey. The methodology encompasses a simple hydrolysis of the honey sample to liberate sugar-bound sulfonamides followed by liquid-liquid extraction of the 10 analytes, filtration, and analysis by LC-MS-MS. Conditions for reversed-phase LC and electrospray ionization (ESI) MS-MS in the positive ion mode were optimized for the 10 compounds under study, monitoring two characteristic mass transitions simultaneously for each analyte. The procedure is a qualitative confirmatory method for 10 sulfonamides at the low microg/kg level in honey. Typical recoveries of the analytes in honey ranged from 44 to 73% at a fortification level of 50 microg/kg. This study also addresses the issue of matrix-induced suppression of ionization, an effect often encountered in trace residue analysis of food matrices using LC-ESI-MS-MS based methods. |
