Application and optimization of microwave-assisted extraction and dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction followed by high-performance liquid chromatography for sensitive determination of polyamines in turkey breast meat samples Moein Bashiry a , Abdorreza Mohammadi a,⇑ , Hedayat Hosseini a,⇑ , Marzieh Kamankesh a,b , Saeed Aeenehvand a , Zaniar Mohammadi a a Department of Food Science and Technology/National Nutrition and Food Technology Research Institute, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran b Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran article info Article history: Received 29 January 2015 Received in revised form 16 June 2015 Accepted 22 June 2015 Available online 23 June 2015 Keywords: Turkey breast meat Polyamines Dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction High-performance liquid chromatography Response surface methodology abstract A novel method based on microwave-assisted extraction and dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (MAE–DLLME) followed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was developed for the determination of three polyamines from turkey breast meat samples. Response surface methodology (RSM) based on central composite design (CCD) was used to optimize the effective factors in DLLME pro- cess. The optimum microextraction efficiency was obtained under optimized conditions. The calibration graphs of the proposed method were linear in the range of 20–200 ng g 1 , with the coefficient determi- nation (R 2 ) higher than 0.9914. The relative standard deviations were 6.72–7.30% (n = 7). The limits of detection were in the range of 0.8–1.4 ng g 1 . The recoveries of these compounds in spiked turkey breast meat samples were from 95% to 105%. The increased sensitivity in using the MAE–DLLME–HPLC–UV has been demonstrated. Compared with previous methods, the proposed method is an accurate, rapid and reliable sample-pretreatment method. Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Dietary polyamines (PA) (putrescine, spermidine, and sper- mine) are low molecular weight bases with an aliphatic structure, which used to be classified within the group of biogenic amines (BA) (Ladero, Calles-Enríquez, Fernández, & Alvarez, 2010). However, they were considered separately as an individual com- pounds in 1990s, due to their roles in the growth and function of normal cells as well as their mode of formation (Kalac ˇ, 2009). Polyamines are ubiquitous among all different living organisms from bacteria to mammals (Kalac ˇ, 2014). They can also be found in different foodstuffs including wine, fruit, vegetables, cheese, dif- ferent types of meat such as beef and fish in low concentrations (Naila, Flint, Fletcher, Bremer, & Meerdink, 2010). These compo- nents have controversial influences on human health as they can be useful for growth and wounds’ healing, while can be harmful as they accelerate the growth of tumors (Dadáková, Pelikánová, & Kalac ˇ, 2012). Because there is a controversy over exposure levels of polyamines in human body, it is very important to develop an efficient method for determination of these compounds in different foodstuffs. Different methods have been used for analyzing BAs and PAs in foods, such as gas chromatography (GC) (Almeida, Fernandes, & Cunha, 2012), thin-layer chromatography (TLC) (Jeya Shakila, Vasundhara, & Kumudavally, 2001), capillary electrophoretic method (CE) (Lange, Thomas, & Wittmann, 2002), ion chromatog- raphy–mass spectrometry (IC–MS) (Saccani, Tanzi, Pastore, Cavalli, & Rey, 2005), ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) (Dadáková, Kr ˇíz ˇek, & Pelikánová, 2009) and high perfor- mance liquid chromatography (HPLC) (Önal, 2007). HPLC requires minimal preparation and it has high selectivity and sensitivity (Huang et al., 2009); therefore this method has been widely used for determination of BAs in different kinds of food (Lavizzari, Teresa Veciana-Nogués, Bover-Cid, Mariné-Font, & Carmen Vidal-Carou, 2006). However, direct determination of PAs (lipophi- lic compounds), especially in fat and protein-rich food such as meat or meat products is impossible and multi-step sample-preparation procedures are necessary to isolate PAs. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2015.06.079 0308-8146/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding authors. E-mail addresses: ab.mohammadi@sbmu.ac.ir (A. Mohammadi), hedayat@sbmu. ac.ir (H. Hosseini). Food Chemistry 190 (2016) 1168–1173 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Food Chemistry journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodchem