Determination of phenylethanolamine A in animal hair, tissues and feeds by reversed phase liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry with QuEChERS

A simple, sensitive and reliable analytical method was developed for the determination of a new beta-agonist phenylethanolamine A in animal hair, tissues and animal feeds by ultra high performance liquid chromatography–positive electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC–ESI-MS/MS) with QuEChERS. Samples were extracted with acetonitrile/water (80:20, v/v). The extract was purified through QuEChERS method, then was dried with nitrogen and residues were redissolved in mobile phase for hair sample or directly diluted with 0.1% formic acid in water for other samples, and analyzed by LC–MS/MS on a Waters Acquity BEH C18 column with 0.1% formic acid in water/methanol as mobile phase with gradient elution. The samples were quantified using phenylethanolamine A-D3 as internal standards. The proposed method was validated according to the European Commission Decision 2002/657/EC determining specificity, decision limit (CCα), detection capability (CCβ), recovery, precision, linearity, robustness and stability. The CCα values ranged from 0.10 to 0.26 μg/kg. The CCβ values ranged from 0.20 to 0.37 μg/kg. The mean recoveries of 95.4–108.9% with intra-day CVs of 2.2–5.6% and inter-day CVs of 3.1–6.2% were obtained. The method is demonstrated to be suitable for the determination of phenylethanolamine A in animal hair, tissues and animal feeds. The total time required for the analysis of one sample except animal hair sample, including sample preparation, was about 25 min.