Micro-solid phase extraction of ochratoxin A, and its determination in urine using capillary electrophoresis

We describe a simple, environmentally friendly and selective technique for the determination of ochratoxin A (OTA) in urine. It involves (a) the use of a molecularly imprinted polymer as a sorbent in micro-solid-phase extraction in which the sorbent is contained in a propylene membrane envelope, and (b) separation and detection by capillary electrophoresis (CE). Under optimized conditions, response is linear in the range between 50 and 300 ng mL−1 (with a correlation coefficient of 0.9989), relative standard deviations range from 4 to 8 %, the detection limit for OTA in urine is 11.2 ng mL−1 (with a quantification limits of 32.5 ng mL−1) which is lower than those of previously reported methods for solid-phase extraction combined with CE. The recoveries of OTA from urine spiked at levels of 50, 150 and 300 ng mL−1 ranged from 93 to 97 %.