Comparison of PSA to Moringa Oleifera Seed Protein as Sorbent in QuEChERS: A Response Surface Methodology Optimization for Extraction of Some Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals in Food

Abstract

This work aimed at optimizing the QuEChERS method with PSA and then comparing it with Moringa Oleifera seed protein as a clean-up sorbent for the extraction of endocrine-disrupting chemicals. The response surface methodology approach was used in the optimization. A design of experiment (DoE) was used to investigate the effect of the sample mass (0.5–3 g), centrifuge speed (3400–4000 rpm) and time (5–20 min), the mass of $NaCl$ and ${\text{MgSO}}_4\left(1-3\hspace{0.17em}\text{g}\right)$ , and solvent extraction volume (5–10 mL). The analysis was done using GC-ECD and GC × GC TOFMS. The PSA method which was later replaced with Moringa Oleifera seed protein presented optimal values of 3 g of sample, 150 mg PSA, 4000 rpm for 6 min centrifuge conditions, including 2 g NaCl and 2 g ${\text{MgSO}}_4\hspace{0.17em}$ extracted in 10 mL methanol, respectively. Moringa Oleifera seed protein gave better selectivity, and the detection limits ranged between 0.16 and 1.77 $\mu {\text{g\hspace{0.17em}kg}}^{-1}$ with RSD values $\le 13.32\%,$ respectively. Moreover, recoveries were between 76.2  $\pm$  0.85% and 105.2  $\pm$  2.24%. Application of the developed method in food samples detected some EDCs. This study has shown that Moringa Oleifera seed protein is a promising alternative to PSA in the clean-up of food-related samples using the QuEChERS approach.