Rapid determination of triazine contamination of fresh water supplies by immunoassay

Abstract

A highly sensitive, competitive, enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed for the detection of five triazine herbicides in water samples. Low detection limits were achieved without the need to concentrate samples prior to analysis by ELISA. The limit of detection for ametryn, prometryn and prometon was 0–05 ng ml∼’ while atrazine and propazine had a detection limit of 0.2 ng ml^‐1. The concentrations of analyte required to reduce zero standard absorbances by 50% (IC₅₀) far ametryn, prometryn, prometon, propazine and atrazine were 0.18, 0.18, 0.26, 0.48 and 0.37 ng ml^‐1 respectively. De‐ethylatrazine and simazine had respective ICsos of 4.0 and > 25.0 ng ml^‐1. Inter‐assay coefficients of variation were generally less than 10% and recoveries of triazines from fortified water samples were in the range 90–115% for all five triazine herbicides. The results demonstrate the ability of an enzyme immunoassay to detect five triazine herbicides at concentrations below or very close to the maximum concentration allowed under EC guidelines in drinking water (0.1 ng ml^‐1) for individual pesticides.

Keywords:

• Atrazine
• promazine
• ametryn
• prometryn
• prometon
• triazine
• ELISA
• water