A simple solvent based microextraction for high performance liquid chromatographic analysis of aflatoxins in rice samples

This paper describes the development of a simple solvent based microextraction, namely vortex assisted low density solvent–microextraction (VALDS–ME), followed by high performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence detection (HPLC–FD) for the simultaneous determination of four aflatoxins (AFs) including AFB1, AFB2, AFG1 and AFG2 in rice samples. In VALDS–ME, a mixture of low density solvents (1–octanol and toluene) was used as the extraction solvent. The extraction was rapidly achieved with the assistance of vortex agitation and phase separation was easily obtained after the addition of Na 2 SO 4. The effects of various parameters on the extraction efficiency were optimized. Under the optimum conditions, high enrichment factors (42–132), low limits of detection (LODs) in the range of 0.0011–0.17 μg kg −1 and good precisions (RSDs lower than 6.2%) were obtained. AFB1 and AFG1 were detected in berry rice sample at 0.26 and 2.1 μg kg −1, respectively. The recoveries in AFs-spiked rice samples ranged from 70% to 104%. Moreover, the present method was comparable to the conventional immunoaffinity chromatography method.