Determination of gibberellin residue in vegetables and fruits by HPLC-MS/MS method

A rapid and sensitive high performance liquid chromatography - tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) method for determination of gibberellin(GA3) residue in vegetables and fruits was developed. The gibberellin in samples were extracted with methanol solution, adjusted the pH value 3-4, and then extracted with ethyl acetate. After the evaporation, the organic phase was purified with solid extraction using C18 column. The purified liquid was detected using HPLC-MS/MS and quantified using external standard method. Linear range of gibberellin was between 0.01~10.0 μg/mL, and the detection limit was 0.01 μg/mL. The recoveries for all samples with gibberellin ranging 0.02~1.0 mg/kg were between 77.0~100.0%. The CV value were between 3.39~10.05 %(n=5). The results show that the method was accurate and of low detection limit, and could satisfy the request of MRL determination.