OBJECTIVETo establish the method of simultaneous determination of methylcarbamate (MC) and ethylcarbamate (EC) in yellow rice wine by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS).

METHODSMC and EC in yellow rice wine were derived by 9-xanthydrol, and then the derivants were detected by GC/MS; and quantitatively analyzed by D5-EC isotope internal standard method.

RESULTSThe linearity of MC and EC ranged from 2.0 µg/L to 400.0 µg/L, with correlation coefficients at 0.998 and 0.999, respectively. The limits of quantitation (LOQ) and detection (LOD) were 0.67 and 2.0 µg/kg. When MC and EC were added in yellow rice wine at the range of 2.0-300.0 µg/kg, the intraday average recovery rate was 78.8%-102.3%, relative standard deviation was 3.2%-11.6%; interday average recovery rate was 75.4%-101.3%, relative standard deviation was 3.8%-13.4%. 20 samples of yellow rice wine from supermarket were detected using this method, the contents of MC were in the range of ND (no detected) to 1.2 µg/kg, the detection rate was 6% (3/20), the contents of EC in the range of 18.6 µg/kg to 432.3 µg/kg, with the average level at 135.2 µg/kg.

CONCLUSIONThe method is simple, rapid and useful for simultaneous determination of MC and EC in yellow rice wine.