Determination of Pirimicarb and Paclobutrazol Pesticide Residues in Food by HPLC-ESI-MS with a Novel Sample Preparation Method

Abstract

A rapid and simple extraction method for the determination of the pesticides of pirimicarb and paclobutrazol was developed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). Extraction was performed by using a modified QuEChERS-based (a portmanteau word for Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged, and Safe) sample preparation procedure. The “QuEChERS” method combines salting-out liquid–liquid extraction with acetonitrile and a dispersive solid-phase extraction (d-SPE) clean up. Validation studies were carried out in tomato, cucumber, cauliflower, apple, grape, pear, mung bean, peanut, and shrimp as representative matrices. No significant matrix effect was observed for tested pesticides. Limits of quantification were lower than 10 µg kg⁻¹ and recoveries of the spiked samples were in the range between 74% and 110% (with intra-day precision, expressed as relative standard deviations, lower than 9.5%) for all the pesticides. The result of this strategy was satisfactory and the developed method was successfully applied to detect the pesticides of pirimicarb and paclobutrazol in various food matrices.

Keywords:

• Food
• LC-ESI-MS/MS
• Paclobutrazol
• Pirimicarb
• QuEChERs
• Residues

Notes

^a Ion for quantification.