Detecting Histamine in Wine Samples Using Micro Solid-Phase Extraction

In a recent study published in Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, Chia-Hsien Feng of Kaohsiung Medical University in Kaohsiung, Taiwan worked with her team to create a new method for assessing food quality and detecting histamine in wine samples (1).

Red wine pouring into wine glass, close-up | Image Credit: © [ Africa Studio - stock.adobe.com

Histamine, one of the chemicals released within the immune system, can function in several ways, but it is mostly known for causing allergic and anaphylactic reactions (2). However, according to the scientists, histamine can help in assessing food quality. To test this theory, they created a dispersive micro solid-phase extraction (D-μSPE) method that combined dispersive liquid–liquid extraction (LLE) and solid-phase extraction (SPE).

Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were used in the solid phase to extract histamine from the wine samples, while microwave energy helped reduce synthesis time. The microwave energy allowed for an 11.1-fold shorter synthesis time compared to average MIP synthetic methods. Following the experiments, the scientists found that a dispersive solvent can increase adsorption performance of MIPs in wine samples by 97.7%.

To improve the sensitivity of histamine detection in gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS), the scientists later employed their microwave-assisted tandem derivatization method to reuse excess derivatization reagents and reduce both energy consumption and reaction time. Calibration curves were made for wine samples spiked with 0–400 nmol histamine using standard addition, which led to notable linearity and a determination coefficient of 0.999. The intra- and inter-batch relative standard deviations were <0.7% for the slope and <5.3% for the intercept. Meanwhile, the limits of quantitation and detection were 0.4 nmol and 0.1 nmol, respectively. The developed method was deemed a successful analysis method, with the AGREEprep tool evaluating the method’s greenness performance, which proved higher than other reported methods.

References

(1) Liao, F-Y.; Weng, J-R.; Lin, Y-C.; Feng, C-H. Molecularly Imprinted Dispersive Micro Solid-Phase Extraction and Tandem Derivatization for the Determination of Histamine in Fermented Wines. Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 2024, 416, 945–957. DOI: 10.1007/s00216-023-05083-x

(2) Histamine. Cleveland Clinic 2023. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/24854-histamine (accessed 2024-2-27)