Determination of Eugenol in Aquatic Products by Dispersive Solid-Phase Extraction and Ultra-High-Performance Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry

A novel procedure, dispersive solid-phase extraction coupled with ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS), was developed for the determination of eugenol in aquatic products (shrimp, crab, and carp). Aquatic products were extracted with acetonitrile and primarily purified by dispersive solid-phase extraction with graphitized carbon black as absorbent. The pretreated acetonitrile extract was detected by UHPLC-MS/MS. UHPLC was carried out on Dikma Endeavorsil C18 (30 mm × 2.1 mm, 1.8 μm) column eluted by methanol and water (80:20 v/v) at a rate of 0.30 mL min−1. Tandem mass spectrometry was performed by electrospray ionization in negative ion mode to identify and quantify eugenol during multiple reaction monitoring. Under optimized analytical conditions, the matrix-matched spiked calibration sample demonstrates good linearity between 5.0 and 500.0 μg kg−1 with a linear regression coefficient of 0.9996. The average recovery of eugenol from aquatic products is 95.3–103.4% at spiked levels between 5 and 50 μg kg−1 with a relative standard deviation (n = 6) less than 5.4%. The limits of detection and quantification for eugenol were calculated to be 1.47 and 4.91 μg kg−1, respectively. In comparison with those reported, the proposed method has advantages in low detection limit, high recovery, and short analysis time, meeting the requirements for the determination of trace eugenol residue in aquatic products.