Determination of biogenic amines in Bokbunja (Rubus coreanus Miq.) wines using a novel ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole-time of flight mass spectrometry

A rapid and novel ultra-performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole-time of flight mass spectrometry (UPLC/Q-TOFMS) method was developed for the detection of seven biogenic amines in Korean Bokbunja wines. The biogenic amines were pre-column derivatised with dansyl chloride and subsequently extracted by a solid phase extraction cartridge. For the analysis, the dansylated amines were separated on an Acquity™ UPLC column and detected with a micrOTOF-Q II mass spectrometer. The method was validated in terms of linearity, sensitivity, precision and recovery. The coefficient of determination (R2) was higher than 0.994 for all calibration curves. The limit of detection was between 3 and 15 ng/mL. The intra- and inter-day precisions were below 5.0% and 10.7%, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied for the biogenic amine analysis of 18 commercially available Bokbunja wines. None of the biogenic amine levels found in Bokbunja wines surpassed the toxic levels reported in the literature.