Determination of 3‐chloro‐1,2‐propanediol in biological samples by quick‐easy‐cheap‐effective‐rugged‐and‐safe extraction coupled with gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry and its biodistribution in rats

Abstract

3‐Chloro‐1,2‐propanediol is a common food contaminant, but reports on its determination in biological tissues are lacking. In the present study, a method was developed to detect 3‐chloro‐1,2‐propanediol contents in rat tissues by quick‐easy‐cheap‐effective‐rugged‐and‐safe extraction and gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry analysis. Biological samples were extracted with ethyl acetate and purified with adsorbents. The optimized adsorbent for each sample was selected from 4–5 combinations of N‐propylethylenediamine, octadecylsilane, graphitized carbon black, strong anion exchange, and florisil. Extracted 3‐chloro‐1,2‐propanediol was derivatized with heptafluorobutyric anhydride and subjected to gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry. This method had good linearity (correlation coefficients >0.99) in the range of 2–2000 ng/g for blood, kidney, liver, testis, and brain samples. The limits of detection were under 0.8 ng/g; the limits of quantification were 2 ng/g; the recovery rates were 85%–102%; and the matrix effects were 1.98%–7.67%. This method also had good precision. The dynamic changes in 3‐chloro‐1,2‐propanediol in rats gavaged with 20 mg/kg b.w. for 24 h were detected using this method. The 3‐chloro‐1,2‐propanediol content in each tissue sharply increased to a peak, rapidly decreased within 2 h, and stabilized at 12 h. 3‐Chloro‐1,2‐propanediol persisted in the kidney, testis, and liver 24 h after gavage.