Simultaneous Determination of Coumarin and Its Derivatives in Tobacco Products by Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry

In this paper an analytical method based on high performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) for the determination of coumarin and its derivatives in tobacco products was developed. The MS/MS fragmentation pathways of the eight coumarins were elucidated. The new analytical method was defined based on two main axes, an extraction procedure with acetonitrile and analyte detection performed by HPLC-MS/MS in electron impact mode. The excellent selectivity and sensitivity achieved in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode allowed satisfactory confirmation and quantitation for the coumarin flavor additives. Under the optimized gradient elution conditions, it took only 4.5 min to separate all eight coumarins. Good linearity for all the analytes were confirmed by the correlation coefficient r(2), ranging from 0.9987 to 0.9996. The limits of detection (LODs) and limits of quantitation (LOQs) of these compounds were in the range of 0.5–1.7 μg/kg and 1.7–5.2 μg/kg, respectively. The average recoveries at three spiked levels (LOQ, 1.5LOQ, 2LOQ) were all in the range of 69.6%–95.1% with RSDs (n = 6) lower than 5.3%. The method of HPLC-MS/MS developed in this study was initially applied to the research of coumarin flavor additives in tobacco products collected from the located market in Beijing from China and proved to be accurate, sensitive, convenient and practical.