Hydrophilic interaction ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple-quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry (HILIC-UPLC–TQ-MS/MS) in multiple-reaction monitoring (MRM) for the determination of nucleobases and nucleosides in ginkgo seeds

In this study, a rapid, simple and sensitive analytical method was developed for the quantitative determination of 20 nucleosides and nucleobases in functional foods at trace levels using hydrophilic interaction ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple-quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry (HILIC-UPLC–TQ-MS/MS) in multiple-reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. Under optimised chromatographic conditions, good separation of 20 target compounds was achieved using a Waters Acquity UPLC BEH Amide column and gradient elution in 11 min. The limits of detection (LODs) and quantification (LOQs) were between 0.02–42.54 ng/mL and 0.05–98.18 ng/mL for the 20 analytes, respectively. This is the first report about simultaneous analysis of nucleosides and nucleobases in functional foods using this method, which afforded good linearity, precision, repeatability and accuracy. The method developed was successfully applied to quantify target compounds in batches of ginkgo seeds. The method potentially could be used to determine polar and trace-level nucleosides and nucleobases in ginkgo seeds.