Abstract：Objective To develop a method based on ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for the simultaneous determination of inositol, taurine and caffeine in functional drinks. Methods After vortex mixing of functional drinks, 0.02 ml mixture was diluted to 10.0 ml with ultra-pure water, and filtered through 0.22 μm filter membrane. The samples were separated by Waters HSS T3 column, methanol-water as the mobile phases under gradient elution, and the optimal flow rate was 0.22 ml/min. The samples were determined by triple quadrupole mass spectrometry, and quantified by external standard method. Results The analytes had good linearity in the range of 0.005-1.0 μg/ml, and the correlation coefficients (r) were greater than or equal to 0.9995. The detection limits of inositol, taurine and caffeine were 5 ng/ml, 0.2 ng/ml and 0.002 ng/ml respectively. The recoveries of the three analytes were 88.1%-109.0%, and the relative standard deviations (RSD, n=6) 0.8%-7.9%. Conclusion The method is simple for preprocessing, efficient, accurate and sensitive, and it is suitable for thesimultaneous analysis of inositol, taurine and caffeine in functional drinks.
2023, Vol. 30 
