Determination of Coumarin and Safrole in Flavor by Gas Chromatography Coupled to Ion Trap Tandem Mass Spectrometry

A method for determination of coumarin and safrole in flavor was developed by gas chromatography coupled to ion trap tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). Sample was ultrasonically extracted with ethanol from the flavor. The analysis was performed by GC-MS/MS using propanoic acid, 2-phenylethyl ester as an internal standard. The m/z 146 and m/z 118 were selected as the parent ion and daughter ion for coumarin, the m/z 162 and m/z 131 as the parent ion and daughter ion for safrole， respectively. The m/z 104 was selected as the quantitation ion for propanoic acid, 2-phenylethyl ester as an internal standard. Results show that, when the concentration of coumarin and safrole compounds ranged of 0.05－5 mg/L, the curves show good linear relationship (r>0.995). The lowest detection limit of the method (S/N=3) are 0.004 mg/L, 0.002 mg/L for coumarin and safrole, respectively. The recoveries ranged from 90.0% to 131.2%. The method is simple, rapid, high sensitivity, and suitable for the determination of coumarin and safrole in flavor.