Contamination status and health risk assessment of 31 mycotoxins in six edible and medicinal plants using a novel green defatting and depigmenting pretreatment coupled with LC-MS/MS

Mycotoxin contamination in edible and medicinal plants seeds is a potential toxicological concern for consumers. A novel, green and efficient defatting and de-pigment clean-up pretreatment was first developed for the simultaneous determination of 31 mycotoxins via freeze-out combined with solid-phase extraction. Combination of freeze-out and solid-phase extraction can achieve a double clean-up effect: defatting and depigmenting. The combination of the two can achieve a double clean-up effect. Excellent performance characteristics of method validation, inter- and intra-day precision (RSD <10%), and recovery (79.5–125.1%) were obtained, fulfilling the current legislation. Alarmingly, of the 117 batches of samples, more than 30% contained more than one kind of mycotoxin, 7.69% of which were detected at levels exceeding the limits defined in the European Pharmacopoeia, and four of which were detected at levels over five times higher than the maximum residue level. Furthermore, two risk assessment methods identified aflatoxins and Zearalenone as the most risk-inducing mycotoxins in these matrices. This is the first report on the contamination status and risk assessment of multi-mycotoxins in six edible and medicinal plant seeds (Coicis Semen, Semen Perisicae, Ziziphi Spinosae Semen, Cassiae Semen, malt and nutmeg). The presented method has unique advantages for evaluating multi-mycotoxin exposure in edible and medicinal plant seeds or other oil-rich matrices.