Determination of 58 Illegal Additives in Health Tea by Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry

An ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method for the detection of 58 illegal additives in health tea was been established. The samples were extracted by methanol, and after ultrasonic centrifugation. The supernatant was purified by a QuEChERS (5982-4921) tube and determined by UPLC-MS/MS. The acquisition mode of mass spectrometer was multiple reaction monitoring electrospray ionization (ESI+), and quantified by matrix external standard method. Separation was performed on an ACQUITY UPLC HSS T₃ (100 mm×2.1 mm, 1.8 μm) reversed-phase column with gradient elution, and the mobile phase was acetonitrile and 5 mmol/L ammonium acetate+0.1% formic acid solution. In the concentration range of 0.25~10 ng/mL, all the standard objects showed good linear relationships, and the correlation coefficient (R²) was greater than 0.985, the limits of detection and limits of quantitative were 0.005~0.050 μg/g and 0.01~0.10 μg/g, respectively, the recoveries ranged from 60.2% to 119.5%. The method has a good purification effect on the complex health tea matrix, and has the characteristics of simple operation, good reproducibility, high sensitivity and low interference of impurities. It is suitable for the detection of various illegal additives in health tea, and can provide a technical support for the quality and safety supervision of health products.