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A novel analytical approach for the determination of ethylene-thiourea and propylene-thiourea in vegetal foodstuffs by high-performance liquid chromatography hyphenated to inductively coupled plasma-tandem mass spectrometry

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Abstract

This study reports a novel analytical approach for the simultaneous determination of ethylene-thiourea (ETU) and propylene-thiourea (PTU) in fruits and vegetables by (reverse phase) high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled to inductively coupled plasma-tandem mass spectrometry (ICP-QQQMS or ICP-MS/MS). A baseline separation of ETU and PTU was achieved in less than 5 min. A robust method validation by using the accuracy profile approach was performed by carrying out four measurement series in duplicate at six different levels over a timespan of 4 weeks (different days). The recovery factors ranged from 87 to 101% for ETU and from 98 to 99% for PTU (depending on the spiking level). The coefficient of variation in terms of repeatability (CVr) ranged from 1 to 4.7% for ETU and from 1.8 to 3.9% for PTU (depending also on the analyte level) while the coefficient of variation in terms of intermediate reproducibility (CVR) ranged from 3.4 to 10% for ETU and from 1.8 to 10.8% for PTU. The limit of quantification was 0.022 mg kg−1 (wet weight) for ETU and 0.010 mg kg−1 (ww) for PTU. This novel approach was proved to be highly robust and suitable for the determination of ETU and PTU in foodstuffs of vegetal origin.

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Funding

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 753053.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Food Safety, French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES), Université Paris-Est, ANSES, 94700, Maisons-Alfort, France

    Ibtihel Bendhiab, Alin C. Dirtu, Nathalie Marchond & Petru Jitaru

  2. Department of Chemistry, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Carol I Blvd., No. 11, 700506, Iasi, Romania

    Alin C. Dirtu

  3. Strategy and Programmes Department, ANSES, 94700, Maisons-Alfort, France

    Thierry Guérin

Authors
  1. Ibtihel Bendhiab
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  2. Alin C. Dirtu
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  3. Nathalie Marchond
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  5. Petru Jitaru
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Contributions

Ibtihel BenDhiab: data curation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, validation, roles/writing—original, writing—review and editing. Alin C. Dirtu: conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, funding acquisition, investigation, investigation, methodology, validation, writing—review and editing. Nathalie Marchond: formal analysis, methodology; thierry guérin: resources, writing—review and editing. Petru Jitaru: conceptualization, data curation, funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, project administration, resources, supervision, validation, roles/writing—original draft, writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Petru Jitaru.

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Bendhiab, I., Dirtu, A.C., Marchond, N. et al. A novel analytical approach for the determination of ethylene-thiourea and propylene-thiourea in vegetal foodstuffs by high-performance liquid chromatography hyphenated to inductively coupled plasma-tandem mass spectrometry. Anal Bioanal Chem 416, 431–438 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-023-05034-6

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