A Routine and Sensitive Quantification of 2-Acetyl-1-Pyrroline in Shrimp by DSPE-DLLME Coupled to HPLC–UV

The determination of 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (2-AP), which is an important flavour compound of crustaceans and has a low odour threshold of 0.05 μg/L in water, is still a challenge due to the instability and trace levels of 2-AP in food samples. In this study, 2-AP was trapped by o-phenylenediamine and subsequently purified by the dispersive solid-phase extraction and dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (DSPE-DLLME) methods for HPLC–UV analysis. The developed method was simple, fast and sensitive for the determination of 2-AP in shrimp. Under the optimized DSPE-DLLME conditions, the developed method exhibited excellent linearity ( R 2  = 0.996) and a low limit of detection (LOD, 1.77 μg/kg) and limit of quantitation (LOQ, 5.33 μg/kg). The recoveries of 2-AP in shrimp ranged from 86.3 to 101.6%. In addition, the developed method was applied to detect 2-AP levels in baked shrimp (ranging from 5.6 to 12.6 μg/kg), indicating that the formation of 2-AP could be observed in thermally treated shrimp depending on heating temperature and time. In summary, the developed method has potential application for the trace determination of 2-AP in shrimp due to its convenience and high sensitivity.