http://www.chemistrymag.org/cji/2005/071013pe.htm

  Jan.21, 2005  Vol.7 No.1 P.13 Copyright cij17logo.gif (917 bytes)


Determination of 36 pesticide residues in corn using gas chromatography mass spectrometry

Liu Pengyan, Ma Yusong
(College of Chemistry and Environmental Science, Hebei University, Baoding 071002, China)

Received Sep. 26, 2004; Hebei Science and Technology Department, and Science and Technology Bureau, of Baoding city. (Project: 03547023D, 03N006)

Abstract A new analytical method has been developed to determine organophosphorus, organochlorine, carbamate and pyrethroid, multicomponent pesticide residues in corn. It is based on a fast extraction of pesticides with dichloromethane and a further clean-up procedure by solid-phase extraction using a Florisil cartridge, then analysed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The pesticides were identified by retention time and the proportion of qualitative ions, and quantified being base on extract of spiking standards in blank sample. The determination results of accuracy, precision and the limits of detection (LOD) was shown that the method was validated.
Keywords GC-MS, pesticides, multi-residues, corn

1. INTRODUCTION
Corn is the main product of Chinese agriculture, and is one of the important goods in international trade. But in the past many years, the problem that abuse of pesticides was prevalent in China, the residue of pesticides in farm produce was becoming a neck in export.
   
Two methods about determination of pesticide residues in corn have been found. One is that determination of organochlorine and organophosphorus pesticide residues in corn by GC with Hall electrolytic conductivity and flame photometric detector, respectively[1]. The other one is only determination of 11 organochlorine pesticide residues in corn by GC-MS[2]. But simultaneous determination of organophosphorus, organochlorine, carbamate and pyrethroid pesticide residues in corn has not been reported, and the analytical methods of pesticide residues for other cereals have a fewer reported, too, moreover these methods were used to determine one class of pesticides. For instance, GC-FPD[3,4] or GC-NPD[5] was used to determine organophosphorus pesticides in rice, GC-ECD[6] was used to determine organochlorine pesticides in wheat grain, HPLC[7] was used to determine N-Methyl carbamate pesticides in rice, and so on, or only one pesticide was determined by HPLC[8,9] or GC-MS[10] in cereals. Nowadays, the analysis of a number of pesticides to corn samples can guarantee the fulfillment of maximum residue levels (MRLs) legislations. The analytical methodology required should be fast, simple and robust in order to be applied after the appropriate validation following quality criteria in routine laboratories.
   The purpose of this article is to establish a simple, rapid and sensitive method to simultaneously determine multi component pesticide residues in corn. Firstly, in process of extraction, the solvents using in extraction of pesticides have been selected. Secondly, solid-phase extraction (SPE) was used to clean-up for removing impurities. SPE was a simple, rapid clean-up method, and was widely used in analysis of pesticide residue. The SPE sorbent in common use included: C18, LC- aluminum-N, florisil, etc. In analysis of multicomponent pesticide residues, the florisil cartridge was more used in process of clean-up [11-15]. Because the polarities of these pesticides were different, the mixture solvent of hexane and acetone was selected as the eluent. The conditions of clean-up were confirmed by the results of experiment. Finally, the prepared sample was determined using GC-MS in selected-ion monitoring (SIM) mode.

2. EXPERIMENTAL
2.1 Reagents and chemicals
LC grade dichloromethane, hexane, acetone were purchased from Merck (Darmstadt, Germany), analytical grade sodium chloride and anhydrous sodium sulphate (prepared 3 h at 650before using) were purchased from Beijing chemical plant (Beijing, China). For SPE, Florisil 1g cartridges were supplied by Beijing Zhenxiang Corporation (Beijing, China).
   
Pesticide standards (including dichlorvos, isoprocarb, phorate, a-BHC, dimethoate, carbofuran, b-BHC, lindane, pentachloronitrobenzene, diazinon, d-BHC, chlorothalonil, methyl parathion, vinclozolin, carbaryl, paraoxon, fenitrothion, pirimiphos-methyl, fenthion, parathion, triadimefon, isofenphos, quinalphos , op`-DDE, endosulfan, op`-DDD, pp`-DDD, ethion, phosmet, fenpropathrin, phosalone, permethrin (I, II), fenvalerate (I, II), deltamethrin) were purchased from Environmental Monitoring Station of Agriculture Ministry (Tianjin, China).
2.2 Apparatus
6890/5973N gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was obtained from Agilent Technologies (USA), N-EVAPTM112 Nitrogen evaporation was obtained from Organomation Associates. Inc (USA), Vacuum manifold processing station was obtained from Supelco (USA), FW-80 Disintegrator was purchased from Tianjin taisite instrument corporation (Tianjing, China), WH-861 Vortex shaker was purchased from Taicang kejiao instrument plant (Taicang, China), KQ-250B Ultrasonic bath was purchased from Kunshan Ultrasonic Instrument corporation (Kunshan, China).
2.2.1 Gas chromatography parameters
A fused-silica capillary column HP-5 MS (Agilent, USA, 30m×0.25mm I.D., 0.25m m film thickness) was used with helium as the carrier gas. Constantly pressure model, the retention time locked by methyl chlorpyrifos. A 1-m L volume of sample was injected by the autosampler applied splitless injection technique with the split closed for 0.75 min. The chromatographic temperature conditions was as follows: 70
oC
for 2 min, increased at 25oC/min to 150oC, 3oC/min to 200oC, then 8oC/min to 280oC final temperature, held for 10 min. The injector temperature was maintained at 220oC.
2.2.2 Mass spectrometric parameters
Mass spectrometric ion source conditions were as follows: Ion source temperature: 230
oC, interface temperature: 280oC, electron voltage: 70eV. Selected-ion monitoring (SIM) was performed.
2.3 Procedures of experiment
2.3.1 Sample preparation
                  
Crush the samples until all the fragment could through the boult with 20 mesh. The spiked samples were obtained by adding standard solution to 2.0g blank sample in which pesticide residues were not detected.
2.3.2 Extraction of sample
2.0 g sample after being milled was placed into a 50 mL beaker, 2.0 mL solution of saturated sodium chloride was added, followed by adding 10.0 mL dichloromethane, extracted by ultrasonic for 10 min. After that, 3.0 g anhydrous sodium sulfate was added and stayed for 2 min. The extraction was transferred to a column packed with 4.0 g anhydrous sodium sulfate, and rinsed twice (total 5 mL) with dichloromethane, all the eluents were collected, and evaporated to nearly dryness under nitrogen stream at 45
, the residue was redissolved with about 1 mL hexane.
2.3.3 Clean-up procedure
A florisil SPE column was conditioned with 6.0 mL mixture of hexane-acetone (4:1) and 5.0 mL hexane, the concentrated extraction was loaded on the top of the cartridge, and followed by eluting with 6.0 mL mixture of hexane-acetone (4:1), the eluent was collected, and evaporated to nearly dryness under nitrogen stream at 45
. The residue was redissolved in 0.5 mL hexane, and determined using GC-MS.

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 Identification of the pesticides
              
All pesticides were identified by retention time and the proportion of selection ions (see Table 1). Total ion chromatogram (TIC) of the mixture solution of pesticide standards was shown in Fig. 1.

Table 1 Retention time and selection ions

Compound

Retention time(min)

TIon (m/z)

Q1(m/z)

Q2(m/z)

Q3(m/z)

dichlorvos

5.83

109

185

79

187

isoprocarb

9.09

121

136

91

77

phorate

11.96

75

121

260

97

α-BHC

12.08

181

219

183

217

dimethoate

12.68

87

93

125

143

carbofuran

13.03

164

149

131

123

β-BHC

13.20

219

181

183

217

lindane

13.46

181

183

219

111

pentachloronitrobenzene

13.68

237

249

295

214

diazinon

14.47

179

137

152

199

δ-BHC

14.54

181

219

183

217

chlorothalonil

14.78

266

264

268

270

methyl parathion

16.59

263

109

125

79

vinclozolin

16.63

212

285

198

187

carbaryl

16.81

144

115

116

145

paraoxon

17.34

109

149

139

275

fenitrothion

18.07

277

125

109

260

pirimiphos-methyl

18.31

290

276

305

233

fenthion

19.12

278

125

109

169

parathion

19.27

291

109

97

139

triadimefon

19.39

208

85

210

——

isofenphos

21.62

213

58

121

255

quinalphos

21.62

146

157

156

118

op`-DDE

22.50

246

318

316

248

endosulfan

22.64

241

195

239

237

op`-DDD

24.35

235

237

165

236

pp`-DDD

25.69

235

237

165

236

ethion

26.00

231

153

97

125

phosmet

28.50

160

161

77

93

fenpropathrin

28.99

97

181

125

265

phosalone

29.68

182

121

184

367

permethrin I

31.37

183

163

165

184

permethrin II

31.55

183

163

165

184

fenvalerate I

34.27

167

125

181

152

fenvalerate II

34.68

125

167

181

169

deltamethrin

36.00

181

253

251

255

3.2 Selection of the extraction solvents      
2.0 g sodium chloride was placed into a 50 mL beaker. The mixture of pesticide standards solution was added and 2.0 mL distill water was added, then 10 mL solvent was added, the followed processing was the same as the described conditions above extraction procedure. The residue was redissolved in 0.5 mL hexane, determined using GC-MS. Via extraction tests with different 8 kinds of solvent, such as dichloromethane, trichloromethane, acetonitrile, ethyl acetate, hexane-acetone (75:25), hexane-acetone (80:20), hexane-acetone (85:15), hexane-acetone (90:10), we found that the efficiency of extraction with dichloromethane was the best, the nine tenths recoveries were more than 90%, except for dichlorvos (2.93
), dimethoate (40.23%). The second was trichloromethane and ethyl acetate, the next was acetonitrile, the last was the mixture of hexane and acetone. A half of recoveries of extraction were lower than 80% with hexane-acetone. Moreover, the b.p. of dichloromethane was also lower than those of other solvents, it could be used to save analytical time on the step of evaporation. Therefore, we selected dichloromethane as the solvent of extraction.
3.3 Selection of clean-up conditions
             
Different proportional mixtures of hexane and acetone as eluent in the elution step, the mixture of hexane-acetone (4:1) showed the best result.
    A florisil column was preconditioned under the described conditions above clean-up procedure, then pesticide standard solution was loaded onto the SPE cartridge, followed eluting with mixture of hexane-acetone (4:1) at the rate of 0.3-0.4 mL/min. Per milliliter eluent was collected respectively, till to eighth one. After concentrating and dissolving in 0.5 mL hexane, the eluent was determined by GC-MS. After the sixth milliliter, the pesticides in the eluent were almost not found, meantime, recoveries in the former 6 mL of the most pesticides were more than 85%. When the volume of eluent was more than 6 mL, the impurities could be eluted. So we selected 6 mL as volume of elution solvent.
3.4 Validations of the method
3.4.1 Accuracy and precision
The recovery rate of each pesticide at two different fortification levels was evaluated. Three repetitions of the sample were carried out for each fortification level. Quantification base on standards prepared in blank sample extract was carried out to compensate for the matrix-induced effects and to obtain more accurate results. Average recovery and relative standard deviations (RSD) obtained were shown in Table 2. TIC of blank sample and fortified sample were shown in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3, respectively.
07101301.gif (21654 bytes)
Fig. 1 TIC of the mixture solution of pesticide standards
1.dichlorvos (0.25m g/mL), 2.isoprocarb (0.25m g/mL), 3.phorate (0.20m g/mL), 4.
α-BHC (0.10m g/mL), 5.dimethoate (2.0m g/mL), 6.carbofuran (0.50m g/mL), 7.β-BHC (0.10m g/mL), 8.lindane (0.10m g/mL), 9.pentachloronitrobenzene (0.50m g/mL), 10.diazinon (0.25m g/mL), 11.δ-BHC (0.10m g/mL), 12.chlorothalonil (0.25m g/mL), 13.methyl parathion (0.25m g/mL), 14.vinclozolin (0.25m g/mL), 15.carbaryl (1.0m g/mL), 16.paraoxon (0.50m g/mL), 17.fenitrothion (0.50m g/mL), 18.pirimiphos-methyl (0.10m g/mL), 19.fenthion (0.20m g/mL), 20.parathion (0.20m g/mL), 21.triadimefon (1.0m g/mL), 22.isofenphos (0.10m g/mL), 23.quinalphos (0.25m g/mL), 24.op`-DDE (0.50m g/mL), 25.endosulfan (0.50m g/mL), 26.op`-DDD (0.50m g/mL), 27.pp`-DDD (0.50m g/mL), 28.ethion (0.50m g/mL), 29.phosmet (1.0m g/mL), 30.fenpropathrin (0.25m g/mL), 31.phosalone (0.25m g/mL), 32.permethrin I (0.50m g/mL), 33.permethrin II (0.50m g/mL), 34.fenvalerate I (0.50m g/mL), 35.fenvalerate II (0.50m g/mL), 36.deltamethrin (1.0m g/mL)

Table 2 Average recovery and relative standard deviations (RSD)

No

Compound

Fortified level
(mg/kg)

Recovery (%)

RSD
(%)

I

II

III

Average

1

dichlorvos

0.031

20.94

18.34

17.70

18.99

9.03

0.12

7.83

6.64

7.56

7.34

8.50

2

isoprocarb

0.031

88.41

83.28

80.21

83.97

4.93

0.12

91.22

87.35

87.51

88.69

2.47

3

phorate

0.025

107.67

102.83

101.92

104.14

2.97

0.10

116.40

113.70

113.33

114.48

1.46

4

BHC alpha isomer

0.012

120.37

118.77

117.21

118.78

1.33

0.050

114.54

106.58

112.82

111.31

3.76

5

dimethoate

0.25

2.56

2.45

2.94

2.65

9.70

1.0

9.28

9.29

8.42

9.00

5.55

6

carbofuran

0.062

82.63

70.14

68.93

73.90

10.26

0.25

75.16

68.13

71.48

71.59

4.91

7

BHC beta isomer

0.012

99.74

98.35

83.05

93.71

9.88

0.050

105.73

100.51

105.05

103.76

2.73

8

lindane

0.012

117.73

124.70

111.07

117.83

5.78

0.050

103.99

101.32

122.67

109.33

10.64

9

pentachloronitrobenzene

0.062

95.82

92.18

90.01

92.67

3.17

0.25

115.68

111.29

113.66

113.54

1.94

10

diazinon

0.031

96.24

98.22

96.12

96.86

1.22

0.12

115.07

110.94

113.92

113.31

1.88

11

BHC delta isomer

0.012

99.47

97.84

90.16

95.82

5.19

0.050

99.16

102.99

105.31

102.49

3.03

12

chlorothalonil

0.031

78.15

76.42

74.25

76.27

2.56

0.12

101.54

95.46

101.03

99.34

3.40

13

methyl parathion

0.031

83.33

79.70

77.65

80.23

3.59

0.12

116.97

112.52

116.59

115.36

2.14

14

vinclozolin

0.031

102.05

100.70

98.40

100.38

1.84

0.12

114.22

108.43

112.09

111.58

2.62

15

carbaryl

0.12

67.50

61.03

55.16

61.23

10.08

0.50

65.63

55.15

60.03

60.27

8.70

16

paraoxon

0.062

87.28

85.57

81.71

84.85

3.36

0.25

90.22

81.63

92.94

88.26

6.69

17

fenitrothion

0.062

79.55

78.08

73.15

76.93

4.36

0.25

118.04

119.94

121.68

119.89

1.52

18

pirimiphos-methyl

0.012

101.32

102.11

96.59

100.01

2.98

0.050

113.89

109.34

113.16

112.13

2.18

19

fenthion

0.025

103.58

102.85

99.36

101.93

2.21

0.10

117.14

110.59

114.88

114.20

2.91

20

parathion

0.025

84.85

82.02

77.35

81.41

4.65

0.10

117.42

119.41

116.97

117.93

1.10

21

triadimefon

0.12

94.55

95.11

88.72

92.79

3.81

0.50

114.79

106.67

112.79

111.42

3.80

22

isofenphos

0.012

95.67

93.45

89.31

92.81

3.48

0.050

115.87

109.81

114.15

113.28

2.76

23

quinalphos

0.031

100.30

99.42

93.57

97.76

3.74

0.12

119.68

112.00

117.18

116.29

3.37

24

op`-DDE

0.062

99.40

98.70

94.43

97.51

2.76

0.25

108.35

98.83

103.88

103.69

4.59

25

endosulfan

0.062

103.95

104.76

97.45

102.05

3.93

0.25

110.35

101.12

106.39

105.95

4.37

26

op`-DDD

0.062

104.69

103.27

97.92

101.96

3.50

0.25

113.56

101.41

108.26

107.74

5.65

27

pp`-DDD

0.062

101.69

99.54

93.28

98.17

4.45

0.25

111.43

98.13

105.18

104.91

6.34

28

ethion

0.062

91.49

88.70

84.29

88.16

4.12

0.25

117.99

105.68

113.48

112.38

5.54

29

phosmet

0.12

90.46

91.67

83.89

88.67

4.72

0.50

99.41

91.27

98.01

96.23

4.52

30

fenpropathrin

0.031

97.00

97.84

102.45

99.10

2.96

0.12

96.59

96.31

86.39

93.10

6.24

31

phosalone

0.031

102.71

106.70

95.72

101.71

5.46

0.12

108.80

103.95

110.62

107.79

3.20

32

Permethrin*

0.062

95.18

100.59

98.73

98.17

2.80

0.25

94.57

90.76

94.74

93.36

4.02

33

Fenvalerate*

0.062

90.64

91.16

93.77

91.86

1.83

0.25

112.74

121.68

120.01

118.14

4.02

34

deltamethrin

0.12

82.16

88.31

99.03

89.83

9.50

0.50

117.38

115.50

122.40

118.43

3.01

*The sum of the two isomers.

3.4.2 Linearity and the limits of detection (LOD)
Linear ranges, calibration curves, correlated coefficients and the LODs were identified. Linear ranges were at level of 10-8-10-7mg/kg except dimethoate, carbaryl, triadimefon, phosmet and deltamethrin (10-7-10-6mg/kg) and good linearities were observed (r0.992) for all pesticides. The LODs were evaluated on the values of the lower concentration fortified sample by a signal-to-noise ratio of 3:1, and they were 0.0013~0.028mg/kg for the most pesticides except dimethoate (0.046 mg/kg) and fenvalerate II (0.065 mg/kg) .
07101302.gif (3303 bytes)
Fig. 2 TIC of blank sample
07101303.gif (23478 bytes)
Fig. 3 TIC of fortified sample
1.dichlorvos (0.12mg/kg), 2.isoprocarb (0.12mg/kg), 3.phorate (0.10mg/kg), 4.
α-BHC (0.050mg/kg), 5.dimethoate (1.0mg/kg), 6.carbofuran (0.25mg/kg), 7.β-BHC (0.050mg/kg), 8.lindane (0.050mg/kg), 9.pentachloronitrobenzene (0.25mg/kg), 10.diazinon (0.12mg/kg), 11.δ-BHC (0.050mg/kg), 12.chlorothalonil (0.12mg/kg), 13.methyl parathion (0.12mg/kg), 14.vinclozolin (0.12mg/kg), 15.carbaryl (0.50mg/kg), 16.paraoxon (0.25mg/kg), 17.fenitrothion (0.25mg/kg), 18.pirimiphos-methyl (0.050mg/kg), 19.fenthion (0.10mg/kg), 20.parathion (0.10mg/kg), 21.triadimefon (0.50mg/kg), 22.isofenphos (0.050mg/kg), 23.quinalphos (0.12mg/kg), 24.op`-DDE (0.25mg/kg), 25.endosulfan (0.25mg/kg), 26.op`-DDD (0.25mg/kg), 27.pp`-DDD (0.25mg/kg), 28.ethion (0.25mg/kg), 29.phosmet (0.50mg/kg), 30.fenpropathrin (0.12mg/kg), 31.phosalone (0.12mg/kg), 32.permethrin I (0.25mg/kg), 33.permethrin II (0.25mg/kg), 34.fenvalerate I (0.25mg/kg), 35.fenvalerate II (0.25mg/kg), 36.deltamethrin (0.50mg/kg)

4. CONCLUSION
At two different fortification levels, all of average recovery was from 70% to 120 % except for dichlorvos, dimethoate and carbaryl), and RSD were lower than 11% in all cases. The LOD were between 0.0013 mg/kg and 0.065 mg/kg, these values were lower then MRLs regulated by Europe Union (EU, 0.01-5mg/kg) and Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC, 0.02-0.1mg/kg) [16].
    This method was simple, rapid, sensitive and could simultaneously determine multicomponent pesticide residues in corn, and satisfied the requirement of routine analysis of pesticide residues in corn.
    The recoveries of dichlorvos, dimethoate and carbaryl were lower. It could have two reasons: one is these pesticides are very well water-solubility, extract these pesticides from water using dichloromethane is difficult, another is that the florisil absorbent is of somewhat polarity, it will adsorb these pesticides in the clean-up procedure.

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS
The authors acknowledge Hebei Science and Technology Department, and Science and Technology Bureau, of Baoding city. (Project: 03547023D, 03N006)

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气相色谱—质谱联用测定玉米中36种农药残留量
刘芃岩 马育松
( 河北大学 化学与环境科学学院,河北 保定 071002)
摘要   建立了玉米中有机磷、有机氯、氨基甲酸酯和拟除虫菊酯等多种类农药残留量的气质联用的测定方法。本方法采用二氯甲烷提取、Florisil固相萃取小柱净化,以保留时间和选择离子比例定性,以空白样品添加为标准进行定量分析,通过方法的准确度、精密度、检出限的测定结果证明了方法的可靠性。
关键词
  气质联用;农药;多残留;玉米

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