Solid-phase extraction and GC-MS analysis of potentially genotoxic cleavage products of Delta b-carotene in primary cell cultures

A validated method for the simultaneous determination of prominent volatile cleavage products (CPs) of Delta *b-carotene in cell culture media has been developed. Target CPs comprised Delta *b-ionone ( Delta *b-IO), cyclocitral (CC), dihydroactinidiolide (DHA), and 1,1,6-trimethyltetraline (TMT). CPs were extracted by solid-phase extraction applying a phenyl adsorbent, eluted with 10% (v/v) tetrahydrofuran in n-hexane, and identified and quantified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry with electron impact ionization. Method validation addressed linearity confirmation over two application ranges and homoscedasticity testing. Recoveries from culture media were between 71.7% and 95.7% at 1.0 Delta *mg/ml. Precision of recoveries determined in intra-day (N=5) and inter-day (N=15) assays were