Development of a Rapid Analytical Method for Simultaneous Determinationof Diverse Plant and Mushroom Toxins

In this study, a rapid and accurate analytical method was developed for the simultaneous determination of 26 plant toxins and 11 mushroom toxins in toxic plants, toxic mushrooms, and their cooked products using LC-MS/MS. This method enables highly selective detection of all 37 analytes, including those with high polarity and low molecular weight, within 10 min using Scherzo SS-C18 column. The analytes were extracted from the samples using methanol and trichloroacetic acid, and purified using Captiva EMR-Lipid. A 50 vol% methanol solution was used as the test solvent, to minimize matrix effects. Validation with six types of food samples demonstrated recoveries ranging from 56.0% to 180.5% (with 96% or more of analytes achieving 70-120%) and RSD of 16.0% or less (with 98% or more of analytes achieving 10% or less), at an added concentration of 1 mg/kg. These results indicate that this method is effective for health crisis management. Additionally, the method successfully detected expected toxins in food leftovers and reference products implicated in previous health hazard cases.