Determination of five coumarins in toys by high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

A rapid analytical method for the determination of five coumarins (coumarin, 7-methoxycoumarin, dihydrocoumarin, 7-methyl coumarin and 7-ethoxy-4-methyl coumarin) in toys by high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) has been developed. After ultrasonic extraction in tetrahydrofuran, the samples were analyzed by HPLC-MS/MS in multi-reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. Acetonitrile and 0.1% acetic acid were used as the mobile phases with gradient elution. The linear ranges of calibration curves were 10 - 1 000 microg/L, and the limits of quantification (LOQ) (S/N > 10) were 2.0 microg/L for all the analytes, except that the LOQ for dihydrocoumarin was 5.0 microg/L. The recoveries of the five coumarins spiked in three types of samples were in the ranges of 93.2% - 105.8%, 97.3% - 103.2% and 96.8% - 102.9%, with the relative standard deviations in the ranges of 4.35% - 8.27%, 3.65% - 6.73% and 4.03% - 6.45%, respectively. The method was applied in the determination of 12 toy samples. The five analytes were found in 9 samples, and in some cases, the presence of quite high concentrations of these coumarins in the toys should be a matter of concern.