Determination of mepiquat chloride in grape, wine and juice by liquid chromatography with electrospray tandem mass spectrometry

A simple and rapid method was developed for the analysis of mepiquat chloride in grape, wine and juice by high-performance liquid chromatography with electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS). Mepiquat chloride was extracted with water-methanol (1:1). Extracted solution was adjusted to pH 10 with ammonia solution. A part of the extracted solution was cleaned up on a styrenedivinylbenzene (SDVB) cartridge for LC/MS/MS. The LC separation was performed on a C18 column (50 mm x 2 mm i.d.) using 0.1% IPCC-MS7-methanol (60:40) as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.2 mL/min. The mass spectral acquisition was done in the positive ion mode by applying selected reaction monitoring (SRM). The recoveries of mepiquat chloride from fresh grape, wine and juice fortified at 5 microg/kg and 50 microg/kg were 84.5-96.1%. The lower limit of quantification was 1 microg/kg. Fourteen fresh grape samples, 14 wines (white), 36 wines (red) and 11 juice samples were analyzed by this method. Mepiquat chloride was detected in 5 fresh grape samples, 3 wines (white) and 1 wine (red) at the level of 12.8-199 microg/kg, 5.7-47.7 microg/kg and 24.1 microg/kg, respectively.