Development of UPLC-MS/MS method for determining hainanmycin in foods of animal origin

Hainanmycin is a polyether antibiotic. Toxicological studies have shown the adverse effects of hainanmycin on animals and humans. At present, no study is available on the detection of hainanmycin in edible tissues of animals. Hence, a fast and accurate detection method for hainanmycin is essential. This study aimed to develop a new analytical method based on ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry to detect hainanmycin in 10 matrices, including milk, eggs, fat, kidney, muscles and livers of chicken, beef and sheep. The limit of detection and the limit of quantitation of the 10 matrices were 0.1–0.4 μg/kg and 0.25–1 μg/kg, respectively, and were far below the maximum residue limits of other polyether anticoccidial drugs (1–150 μg/kg). The recoveries of hainanmycin ranged from 79% to 105%, and the relative standard deviation ranged from 2.8% to 12.0%. The research results prove that the proposed method is operational and simple in detecting hainanmycin, and has high precision and accuracy in a variety of matrices.