Simultaneous qualitative and quantitative analysis of 21 mycotoxins in Radix Paeoniae Alba by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography quadrupole linear ion trap mass spectrometry and QuEChERS for sample preparation

•A UHPLC-QqLIT-MS method developed for simultaneous determination of 21 mycotoxins.•Mycotoxins in Radix Paeoniae Alba (RPA) as the object of the study.•A modified QuEChERS method developed to extract target mycotoxins in RPA.•The performance of QuEChERS method proved to be superior to IAC and SPE methods.•An MRM-IDA-EPI scan mode used to further confirm the mycotoxins detected in RPA. A high-throughput method for simultaneous qualitative and quantitative analysis of 21 mycotoxins in Radix Paeoniae Alba (RPA) was developed by coupling the modified QuEChERS method with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography quadrupole linear ion trap mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QqLIT-MS). The 21 mycotoxins were extracted and cleaned up using QuEChERS-based procedure, then further separated on a C18 column and detected by a hybrid triple quadrupole linear ion trap mass spectrometer equipped with electrospray ionization source in the multiple reaction monitoring-information dependent acquisition-enhanced product ion (MRM-IDA-EPI) mode. Under this technique, 13 mycotoxins were detected using acetonitrile and water containing 0.1% formic acid as the mobile phase in positive mode while the other 8 mycotoxins were detected using acetonitrile and water containing 0.1% ammonia as the mobile phase in negative mode. The calibration curves of all analytes showed good linearity (r2>0.995) within test ranges. The limits of detection and quantification ranged from 0.031 to 5.4µg/kg and 0.20 to 22µg/kg, respectively. Additionally, recoveries were all above 75.3% with relative standard deviations within 15%. The method proposed herein with significant advantages including simple pretreatment, rapid determination as well as high sensitivity, accuracy and throughput would be a preferred candidate for the determination and quantification of multi-class mycotoxin contaminants in real samples.