• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.252-261
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• 2019

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) are a group of secondary metabolites that are produced by plants all over the world as a defense mechanism against herbivores. To date, over 660 PAs have been identified from more than 6,000 plant species that have been reported to be widely present in plants belonging to Asteraceae, Boraginaceae, and Fabaceae. This study describes an analytical method based on UPLC-MS/MS for the quantitation of 7 pyrrolizidine alkaloids (Lycopsamine, Echimidine, Retrorsine, Retrorsine N-oxide, Senecionine, Heliotrine, and Trichodesmine) in honey, and was applied to 84 honey samples for validation. Quantitation was performed based on a matrix-matched calibration to compensate for the matrix effect on the electrospray ionization. Good linear calibrations were obtained for all 7 PAs in the spiked honey samples (2.575-202.14 ㎍/kg; R² ≥ 0.998). The extraction recoveries for most of the PAs in the honey samples were in the range of 81 %-108 %. The analysis showed that 6 of the 84 honey samples were contaminated by the PAs with the mean total sum of PAs being 47.19 ㎍/kg, and the concentrations of the PAs were observed to be in the range of 1.76-202.1 ㎍/kg. The retronecine type compounds (Echimidine, Lycopsamine) were the most frequently found PAs in honey. These data provide useful information for the assessment of human risk posed by the consumption of honey contaminated PAs.