Simultaneous analysis of synthetic musks and triclosan in human breast milk by gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

A comprehensive method was developed for the simultaneous analysis in human breast milk of 12 synthetic musks, five nitro musks, six polycyclic muks and one macrocyclic musk; as well as one musk metabolite and triclosan. The target analytes were freeze dried and extracted using the accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) procedure. The extracts were further purified by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and florisil solid-phase extraction (SPE) and then analyzed by gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (GC–MS/MS). Recoveries of the analytes based on the isotopic internal standard correction ranged from 82.4% to 112%, with relative standard derivations less than 20%. The method quantification limits (MQLs) were 0.6–5.4 ng/g lipid. The analytes were detected in human breast milk samples and ranged from 11.7 to 308.6 ng/g lipid.