One step rapid dispersive liquid-liquid micro-extraction with in-situ derivatization for determination of aflatoxins in vegetable oils based on high performance liquid chromatography fluorescence detection

•A simple and fast sample preparation method was developed for aflatoxins detection.•DLLME with in-situ derivatization of aflatoxins in vegetable oils was established.•The in situ protocol showed higher recovery of aflatoxins than the sequential method.•The present method showed high sensitivity and high accuracy. A rapid dispersive liquid-liquid micro-extraction (DLLME) with in-situ derivatization method for extraction and purification of aflatoxins (AFs) in vegetable oils was developed and evaluated. Oil extract, dichloromethane and trifluoroacetic acid were mixed and injected into water to form a cloudy solution. AFs in the oil were extracted into the numerous liquid droplets (with diameters from a few microns to dozens of microns) of extractant, where derivatization was carried out in situ. The proposed sample preparation method was coupled with high performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (HPLC-FLD) for determination of four AFs in vegetable oils. The method showed excellent linearity in three orders of magnitude, good relative recoveries, good repeatability and high sensitivity with limits of detection in range of 0.005–0.03 ng/mL. The accuracy of the method was also verified by certified reference sample. Finally, different kinds of vegetable oils from the local supermarket were analyzed.