A Simple SPE Method for the Determination of Malachite Green, Crystal Violet and Other Synthetic Dyes in Seafood

UCT-synthetic-dyes-in-seafood

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Triphenylmethane dyes (TPMs) are synthetic dyes used for a wide range of industrial applications. However, they are also used in aquaculture production due to their antibacterial, anti-fungal and anti-parasitic properties. They are cheap, very effective and readily available, but due to their toxicity to humans (mutagenic & carcinogenic) the TPMs are banned in the US and EU.

Analysing TPMs can be difficult due to their instability, which causes problems during sample preparation and instrumental analysis. Most reported methods for TPM analysis use lengthy sample preparation procedures or do little to no sample cleanup. Most methods include malachite green, leucomalachite green, crystal violet, leucocrystal violet and sometimes the structurally related dye brilliant green.

This application note uses an alternative elution solvent composed of methanol (MeOH) containing 1% triethylamine (TEA) and 0.5% formic acid (i.e. triethylammonium formate). The simple method outlined here allows for the rapid analysis of dyes in seafood while achieving good accuracy/precision and low sensitivity.

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