Fumonisins determination in urine by LC-MS-MS

The present work shows the optimization and validation results of an analytical methodology based on imunoaffinity clean-up (IAC) followed by liquid chromatography with tandem mass detection (LC-MS-MS) for the analysis of the mycotoxins fumonisin B₁ (FB₁) and B₂ (FB₂) in human urine samples, in order to evaluate fumonisins exposure in two Portuguese populations. As far as we know, imunoaffinity clean-up procedure was used, for the first time, in the analysis of fumonisins (FBs) in urine. Using this analytical methodology, the limit of quantification achieved was 10 ng mL⁻¹ for FB₁ and for FB₂. Recoveries were higher than 73.4% for fortification levels between 10 and 100 ng mL⁻¹ and intra-day and inter-day repeatibility were lower than 8.6%. The natural occurrence of FB₁ and FB₂ in 68 human urine samples obtained from the central zone of Portugal was studied. None of the studied samples presented detectable levels of FB₁ and FB₂.