Determination of Melamine in Full Fat milk. Introduction: This document describes the first experiments to determine Melamine in raw cow milk (8-10% fat). Due to the limited time the application is divided in two steps. The first and main test is to determine the best on-line SPE conditions. This is decribed in this document. In a later stage the second step has to be investigated; this is to find the best LC conditions for this compound. Experiments: The LogD (logp) indicates that Melamine is a very polar compound. As expected the tested reversed phase sorbents did not show any recovery of the compound. Therefore the next step is to investigate the cation exchange sorbents. There are two cation exchange techniques available: strong and weak cation exchange. For both techniques are several cartridges available: MM-C, Oasis MCX, MM-Weak Cation, Oasis WCX, SCX and PRS. All these are tested and the Oasis MCX gave the best peak shape and recovery. This cartridge is used to clean the cow milk and validate the method. The MS was tuned and the mass setting 127/85 was used for quantification purposes and the 127/68 was used for qualification purpose. XIC of +MRM (2 pairs): 127.1/67.9 Da from Sample 29 (MCX 10 ul 100 ng/ml sample 1 flow 0.75 50% ACN elution) of xlc.wiff (Turbo Spray), Smo... Max. 9.1e4 cps. 9.0e4 0.95 8.5e4 8.0e4 7.5e4 7.0e4 6.5e4 6.0e4 5.5e4 Intensity, cps 5.0e4 4.5e4 4.0e4 3.5e4 3.0e4 2.5e4 2.0e4 1.5e4 1.0e4 500 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3.0 3.2 3.4 3.6 3.8 Time, min Figure 1: Melamine (127/68) spiked in raw cow milk. Concentration melamine is 100 ng/ml and 10 µl is injected
XIC of +MRM (2 pairs): 127.1/85.1 Da from Sample 29 (MCX 10 ul 100 ng/ml sample 1 flow 0.75 50% ACN elution) of xlc.wiff (Turbo Spray), Smo... Max. 2.8e5 cps. 2.8e5 0.95 2.6e5 2.4e5 2.2e5 2.0e5 1.8e5 Intensity, cps 1.6e5 1.4e5 1.2e5 1.0e5 8.0e4 6.0e4 4.0e4 2.0e4 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3.0 3.2 3.4 3.6 3.8 Time, min Figure 2: Melamine (127/85) spiked in raw cow milk. Concentration melamine is 100 ng/ml and 10 µl is injected Sample preparation: A ph 5.8 buffer is added to the milk in a 1 to 1 ratio. This ph 5.8 buffer is made out of 10 mm Ammonium acetate and set to the right ph with Acetic acid. 25 µl of this diluted milk is loaded on the Waters Oasis MCX cartridge. Method Data: ------------ Symbiosis Pico MethodType: Alias Injection Mode: Speed: Flush volume: Needle height: HeadSpace pressure: Air segment: Wash solvent 1: XLC Partial loopfill Normal 2.0 x Needle volume 2.5 mm Off Off 40% ACN 0.2% FA in water
Wash method Wash volume (ul) Wash solvent 700 40% ACN 0.2% FA in water extraction unit Conditioning solvent: ACN Conditioning flow: Conditioning volume: 1000 ul Equilibration solvent: 5% ACN 0.2% FA Equilibration flow: Equilibration volume: 1000 ul Sample extraction solvent: 5% ACN 0.2% FA Sample extraction flow: 2000 ul/min Sample extraction volume: 2000 ul Cartridge wash flow: Cartridge wash volume: 1500 ul Mix cartridge wash solvent A: ACN; 75 % Mix cartridge wash solvent B: 5% ACN 0.2% FA; 25 % Clamp flush solvent2: 50% ACN 2% NH4OH Clamp flush flow2: Clamp flush volume2: 75 ul Elution mode: Focusing (HPD) Focusing solvent: 50% ACN 2% NH4OH Focusing flow: 200 ul/min Focusing volume: 400 ul Elution pump Aqueous (pumpa): Water 0.2% FA (pump A1) Organic (pumpb): ACN 0.2% FA (pump B1) Pump Maximum pressure: 350 Bar Pump Minimum pressure: 0 Bar Equilibration Time: 00:02 Pump time table Pump time Pump flow (ml/min) Pump Fraction A % Pump Fraction B % 00:00:01 0.75 95 5 00:00:30 0.75 95 5 00:02:00 0.75 95 5 00:03:30 0.75 5 95 00:03:45 0.75 5 95 00:04:00 0.75 95 5 00:05:00 0.75 95 5
Period 1 Experiment 1: ---------------------------- Scan Type: MRM (MRM) Polarity: Positive Ion Source: Turbo Spray Resolution Q1: Unit Resolution Q3: Low MR Pause: 5.0000 msec Q1 Mass (Da) Q3 Mass (Da) Dwell(msec) Param Start Stop 127.13 85.10 150 CE 25.00 25.00 CXP 14.00 14.00 Q1 Mass (Da) Q3 Mass (Da) Dwell(msec) Param Start Stop 127.13 67.90 150 CE 39.00 39.00 CXP 12.00 12.00 Parameter Table(Period 1 Experiment 1) CAD: 7.00 CUR: 15.00 GS1: 80 GS2: 40 IS: 5000 TEM: 450 ihe: ON IQ2-18.00 DP 51.00 EP 10 Calibration: The minimum acceptance level for milk in Europe is 0.5 ppm and for the US this limit is higher (1 ppm). This represents 0.5 mg Melamine per kg milk or milk powder. 1 Liter milk weights around 1 kg. Therefore for milk the limit is 0.5 mg/l or 0.5 µg/ml or 500 ng/ml. The first experiments showed that the this detection limit is easy to reach. Therefore I created a calibration curve from 1 to 100 ng/ml in milk.
Untitled 1 (Melamine): "Linear" Regression ("1 / x" weighting): y = 6.14e+003 x + 5.63e+004 (r = 0.9988) 6.5e5 6.0e5 5.5e5 5.0e5 4.5e5 4.0e5 A rea, counts 3.5e5 3.0e5 2.5e5 2.0e5 1.5e5 1.0e5 5.0e4 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 Concentration, ng/ml Calibration curve from 1 ng/ml till 100 ng/ml in fat milk. 1/X weighting and R=0.9989 Expected Concentration %CV Accuracy 1.000000 7.65 87.9 2.000000 1.68 95.6 5.000000 7.06 106. 100000 0.38 107. 200000 3.65 104. 500000 2.36 101. 100000 2.86 99.2 Two combined calibration curves. N.B. No internal standard is used during this experiment