http://www.chemistrymag.org/cji/2005/077050pe.htm

  Jul. 2, 2005  Vol.7 No.7 P.50 Copyright cij17logo.gif (917 bytes)


Ultrasonic extraction method for the gas chromatographic determination of organochlorine pesticides residue in some herbs

Lu Ping, Song Baoan, Sui Wubin, Hu Deyu, Xue Wei, Jin Linhong, Liu Gang, Huang Rongmao, Yang Song
(Key Laboratory of Green Pesticide and Agricultural Bioengineering, Ministry of Education
Research and Development Center for Fine Chemicals, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025 , China)

Received on Jun.17, 2005; Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.20162001) and Natural Science Foundation of Guizhou Province (No.20043020) and Program for Excellent Talents of Science and Education of Guizhou Provincial Governor (No.200407).

Abstract An ultrasonic extraction and gas chromatographic determination of organochlorine pesticides(OCPs) with electron captured detector was described for a-BHC, b-BHC, c-BHC, d-BHC, op' -DDT, pp' -DDT, pp' -DDE and pp' -DDD of pesticide residues in Pinellia Tuber, Fleeceflower Root, Eucommiaulomoider Oliv, Dendrobium, Medicinal Evodia Fruit and Lonicera japonica Thunb. Recoveries were varied between 78-114% and relative standard deviations varied between 2.76% and 8.17%. The detection and quantification limits for this method were 0.1 to 0.2 ng/g for the above six pesticides.
Keywords Pesticide Residue; Herbs; ultrasonic fluid extraction; Gas Chromatography

1 INTRODUCTION
Chinese herbal medicines (CHMs) have been used by the Chinese for thousands of years. They play an important role in Chinese daily life. Due to the increasing demand of the CHMs, wild herb can hardly meet the requirements of the market because the wild resource is limited. So many herbal plant are now being cultivated by manpower. During the herb plant's cultivation, pesticides are widely used to control diseases and attacks originated from insects and mites [1]. So there is possible risk for consumer to take pesticide residues remaining on CHMs. The organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) are widely used in the world. And their residual level has attracted the attention by scientists due to their high accumulation, though many kinds of OCPs have been forbidden by many countries throughout the world. Furthermore, the OCPs have a long half-life, harmful biological effects on the environment [2].
    The separation of OCPs in CHMs are always difficult at some problems which are extraction, purification and detection of OCPs in complex matrices. Classical extraction methods such as solvent extraction, column adsorption have been largely replaced by solid-phase micro extraction (SPME) [3], supercritical fluid extraction (SFE)[4]. However, although providing simple, fast methods, SPME gives low extraction yields that are affected by the herb, and some pesticides are not fully extracted[5]. SFE has been shown to be an efficient and rapid method for the separation of pesticides from CHMs[6-8], but it needs special equipments.
    We now report a simple and fast ultrasonic fluid extraction (UFE) method for the determination of OCPs in CHMs, which served the benefits such as fast, simple, lower cost, no special apparatus and only small amounts of solvents needed. And the most important is that it has good reproducibility. All the recoveries varied between 78% to 111% and relative standard deviation (RSD) varied between 2.76% to 8.17%.

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS
2.1 Chemicals
All solvents used were of pesticide residue grade and anhydrous sodium sulfate was analytical grade reagents (Shanghai Chemical Reagents Co.). The standard pesticide sample of op' -DDT, pp' -DDT, a -BHC, b -BHC, c -BHC, d -BHC, pp' -DDE, and pp' -DDD were purchased from the Institute of Scientific Research of Environmental Protection, Ministry of Agriculture of the People's Republic of China, which were certified as a concentration of 100mg/mL. Anhydrous sodium sulfate was heated at 500
ºC for 4h and was stored at 50ºC.
2.2 Instrumentations
Chromatographic analysis were carried out using an Agilent 6890N gas chromatograph equipped with a 63Ni electron captured detector (ECD) and a split-splitless injector. Capillary column was a HP-5 (diphenyl(5%) dimethylpoly siloxane(95%) Quartz capillary column 30m 0.32mm i.d., 0.25m m, Agilent, USA). Ultrasonic cleaner (KQ3200E).
2.3 Standard solutions
A stock standard solution at a concentration of 200ng/mL was prepared with petroleum ether. Appropriate dilutions of this stock standard solution were made with petroleum ether to obtain working standard solutions of a series of concentration of 1-200ng/mL.
2.4 Herb sample fortification
Herb samples were originated from Guizhou local plant field. They were fortified by adding a combined standard of OCPs to obtain concentration of 20, 50, 200ng/g. After the fortification the samples were kept at room temperature to equilibrate for 1 hr prior to extraction. Five replicates at each fortification level, including unspiked controls, were extracted, clear-up and analyzed by GC as described below.
2.5 Extraction    
Herbs are ground mechanically to homogeneous powder and sieved through a No. 40 mesh sieve. One gram of such powder was weighed into beaker and 5ml petroleum ether was added. It was proceeded ultrasonic extraction for 15-20min. Then centrifuge for 5 min at high speed. The upper layer was concentrated with a vacuum rotary evaporator equipped with a water bath at 35ºC (Method for Pinellia Tuber and Dendrobium) or the upper layer was injected into a tube and 0.1ml 95% concentrated sulfuric acid was added. Then was proceeded ultrasonic extraction for 5min, centrifuging 3min and the upper layer was added with 0.2g anhydrous sodium sulfate, ultrasonic extraction for 5 min, and centrifuge 5 min. The upper layer was concentrated for analyses.
2.6 GC condition for 8 OCPs analysis      
The inlet and detector were operated at 250ºC and 320ºC, respectively. Injection mode is split, with split ratio 5:1. Oven temperature was intimately held at 60ºC for 1 min, increased to 160ºC (20ºC/min) and held for 5 minutes, increased to 260ºC (10ºC
/min) and held for 2 min. Nitrogen was used as carrier and makeup gas at 100mL/min, 60 mL/min, respectively. Sample injection volume was 1mL.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The residue level of 8 OCPs in 6 Chinese herb samples were exhibited in Table 1, it can be seen that the BHC and DDT residue level in Pinellia Tuber and Fleeceflower Root are a little higher than the national standard.

Table 1 Contents of 8 OCPs in 6 Chinese herb samplesa)

pesticides

Pinellia Tuber

Fleeceflower Root

Eucommiaulomoider Oliv

Medicinal Evodia Fruit

Lonicera japonica Thunb

Dendrobium

a -BHC

16

16.9

NDb)

7.9

10.8

14.0

b -BHC

37.6

39.7

8.1

23.3

21.2

28.0

c -BHC

21.5

23.5

8.0

9.0

38.3

18.0

d -BHC

45.7

38.0

13.1

21.3

43.4

24.7

Total BHC

120.8

118.1

29.2

61.5

113.7

84.7

pp¢ -DDT

ND

26.1

ND

19.7

78.6

ND

op¢ -DDT

ND

23.0

ND

ND

ND

ND

pp¢ -DDD

57.1

58.3

5.9

17.0

15.7

37.0

pp¢ -DDE

38.2

42.5

9.1

ND

14.6

17.1

Total DDT

149.7

149.9

15.0

36.7

108.9

54.1

a) ng/g.   b) ND means no detection

3.1 Standard curve                
A ECD detector response curve was obtained by injecting duplicate standard solutions (1-200ng/mL). The response of 8 OCPs was linear in the range studied and the correlation coefficient determined was 0.9987-0.9999, the detection and quantification limits for this method were 0.1 to 0.2 ng (Table 2).

Table 2 The linear regression equation for 8 OCPs

Pesticide

Retention time/min

Regression equation

Correlative coefficient

Linear range /g

Detection limit /g

a -BHC

4.109

Y=2823.0X-89.5

0.9992

1.0×10-13-1.0×10-9

1.8×10-10

b -BHC

4.406

Y=965.4X-6.4

0.9999

1.0×10-13-1.0×10-9

1.5×10-10

c -BHC

4.531

Y=2098.4X-48.5

0.9990

1.0×10-13-1.0×10-9

1.2×10-10

d -BHC

4.951

Y=1977.4X-44.3

0.9991

1.0×10-13-1.0×10-9

1.8×10-10

pp¢ -DDT

9.483

Y=2033.2X-51.0

0.9996

1.0×10-13-1.0×10-9

1.4×10-10

op¢ -DDT

10.730

Y=1088.6X+6.41

0.9998

2.0×10-12-1.0×10-9

1.9×10-10

pp¢ -DDD

10.827

Y=955.8X-24.3

0.9997

1.0×10-13-1.0×10-9

2.1×10-10

pp¢ -DDE

11.882

Y=925.7X-21.0

0.9987

2.0×10-12-1.0×10-9

1.5×10-10

3.2 Reproducibility                  
The inter-day reproducibility of the retention time and peak height were examined by using a 10ng/mL standard and 50
mg/g spiked sample extracts throughout the course of the experiment. A total of 45 injections of each over 15 days. The results showed that the Lonicerajaponica Thunb peak height variabilities for both the 10m
g/mL standard and the spiked herb extract were with 5.0% R.S.D. Retention time fluctuation measured in the same way showed the maximum R.S.D value of 2.7%. Gas chromatograms of the 8 OCPs standard samples were shown in Fig 1.

Fig 1 Chromatogram of 8 kind of OPPs standard sample. 1, a -BHC; 2, b -BHC; 3, c-BHC; 4,  d-BHC; 5, pp'-DDE; 6, pp'-DDD; 7, op' -DDT; 8, pp' -DDT

Fig 2A Chromatogram of organochlorine pesticide of Matrix of Lonicerajaponica Thunb herb sample

Fig 2B Chromatogram of organochlorine pesticide of fortified Lonicerajaponica Thunb herb sample.

3.3 Recovery                
Fig 2A and 2B shows GC chromatograms for unspiked herb and for herb spiked at 100ng/g, respectively. The chromatograms for unspiked herb showed lack of interference in the retention region for 8 OCPs. The recovery data for OCPs spiked into several herbs are presented in Table 3. Mean recoveries of five replicates ranged from 80.7% to 104.6%, with relative standard deviation (RSD) values from 2.97% to 7.20%.


Table 3 Recoveries of 8 OCPs from fortified herb samples at different concentration levels*

Pesticide

Pinellia Tuber

Eucommia ulmoidesOliv

Fortification levels
(ng·g-1)

Recoveries*(%)

Fortification levels
(ng·g-1)

Recoveries*(%)

Range

Mean

RSD

Range

Mean

RSD

a -BHC

20

89-97

92.6

4.10

20

81-86

83.7

3.35

 

50

92-98

94.6

3.07

50

81-91

86.1

5.46

 

200

92-98

95.1

3.18

200

89-97

93.7

4.06

b -BHC

20

86-93

90.2

3.87

20

82-88

84.7

3.54

 

50

89-97

93.1

4.32

50

86-93

89.6

3.01

 

200

93-100

96.3

3.89

200

92-101

96.4

4.67

c -BHC

20

85-94

89.7

4.44

20

82-94

87.9

6.37

 

50

88-95

91.6

3.56

50

87-99

93.4

6.21

 

200

91-99

94.7

4.29

200

98-109

102.4

6.54

d -BHC

20

84-90

86.9

3.20

20

80-90

84.5

6.39

 

50

85-92

88.9

3.51

50

84-97

90.7

7.17

 

200

88-96

92.4

4.43

200

93-106

99.6

6.02

pp¢ -DDT

20

85-91

87.9

3.17

20

84-99

91.6

7.73

 

50

89-97

92.6

4.23

50

92-103

97.8

5.57

 

200

92-100

96.4

4.27

200

97-114

105.3

7.71

op¢ -DDT

20

84-93

88.6

4.85

20

85-96

90.8

6.01

 

50

89-97

93.5

4.26

50

91-104

97.1

6. 48

 

200

97-101

97.0

4.58

200

96-112

103.5

8.39

pp¢ -DDD

20

84-88

85.9

2.76

20

83-91

87.4

4.46

 

50

86-92

89.1

3.39

50

87-100

93.5

6.56

 

200

88-96

92.0

3.99

200

95-104

99.7

4.88

pp¢ -DDE

20

83-90

86.6

3.76

20

79-89

83.7

6.11

 

50

86-94

90.4

4.57

50

84-95

89.4

5.57

 

200

90-99

94.6

4.77

200

99-110

104.9

5.34

(*n=5)

Table 3
Recoveries of 8 OCPs from fortified herb samples at different concentration levels*(Continued)

Pesticide

Medicinal Evodia Fruit

Fleaceflower Root

Fortification levels
(ng·g-1)

Recoveries*(%)

Fortification levels
(ng·g-1)

Recoveries*(%)

Range

Mean

RSD(%)

Range

Mean

RSD(%)

a -BHC

20

80-87

83.7

3.75

20

81-94

87.5

7.20

 

50

84-91

87.5

4.01

50

90-100

94.8

5.51

 

200

88-97

92.4

4.58

200

95-105

99.9

4.79

b -BHC

20

80-87

82.9

4.54

20

78-83

80.9

5.07

 

50

83-92

87.5

5.35

50

82-91

86.7

5.33

 

200

88-99

93.3

5.91

200

88-98

92.8

5.86

c -BHC

20

81-88

84.7

4.09

20

81-93

86.9

6.57

 

50

86-96

90.8

5.26

50

88-97

92.7

5.03

 

200

93-104

98.6

5.42

200

94-106

99.8

5.64

d -BHC

20

80-93

86.3

7.15

20

80-84

81.7

4.65

 

50

88-101

94.5

7.13

50

82-95

88.4

8.17

 

200

97-111

104.6

6.52

200

91-104

97.5

6.97

pp¢ -DDT

20

80-88

83.9

4.55

20

81-92

86.7

6.16

 

50

85-94

89.7

5.54

50

87-96

91.8

5.24

 

200

92-101

96.5

4.82

200

93-104

98.7

5.30

op¢ -DDT

20

78-84

80.7

5.38

20

84-92

88.2

4.51

 

50

82-91

86.7

5.14

50

89-100

94.8

5.56

 

200

89-95

91.9

2.97

200

96-109

102.5

5.99

pp¢ -DDD

20

84-92

87.9

4.45

20

78-84

80.9

3.19

 

50

90-100

94.8

4.83

50

84-90

86.7

3.77

 

200

97-105

100.7

3.84

200

88-98

92.8

5.06

pp¢ -DDE

20

82-91

86.4

5.24

20

82-88

84.6

3.71

 

50

88-96

91.7

4.15

50

86-95

90.5

4.77

 

200

92-103

97.1

5.60

200

94-101

97.4

3.81

Table 3 Recoveries of 8 OCPs from fortified herb samples at different concentration levels (Continued)

Pesticide

Dendrobium

Lonicerd japonica Thunb

Fortification levels
(ng·g-1)

Recoveries*(%)

Fortification levels
(ng·g-1)

Recoveries*(%)

Range

Mean

RSD

Range

Mean

RSD

a -BHC

20

82-92

86.9

6.01

20

86-94

90.3

4.32

 

50

87-96

91.6

4.71

50

85-91

87.9

3.42

 

200

92-102

97.2

4.97

200

91-100

95.6

4.40

b -BHC

20

83-93

88.3

5.55

20

89-94

91.6

3.20

 

50

88-97

92.4

4.69

50

96-106

101.3

4.73

 

200

91-101

96.1

5.34

200

90-100

95.2

5.35

c -BHC

20

86-95

90.5

5.30

20

85-92

87.9

4.19

 

50

92-98

94.8

3.61

50

88-97

92.4

5.01

 

200

97-108

102.4

5.03

200

93-101

97.0

4.39

d -BHC

20

88-98

92.6

5.52

20

88-96

92.1

4.38

 

50

94-102

97.3

4.81

50

82-93

87.5

5.82

 

200

96-106

101.2

5.03

200

89-99

93.7

5.30

pp¢ -DDT

20

81-89

84.9

4.68

20

82-94

88.4

6.88

 

50

85-94

89.4

4.77

50

88-99

93.5

5.42

 

200

93-102

97.8

4.75

200

93-105

98.9

6.32

op¢ -DDT

20

82-91

86.4

5.67

20

86-95

90.3

4.68

 

50

90-98

94.1

4.59

50

82-92

86.7

6.22

 

200

94-106

100.2

5.92

200

90-103

96.4

6.70

pp¢ -DDD

20

80-86

82.8

4.55

20

81-88

84.8

3.97

 

50

83-93

88.6

5.11

50

87-97

92.1

5.19

 

200

90-97

93.9

4.16

200

98-109

103.5

5.54

pp¢ -DDE

20

83-95

89.2

6.70

20

86-93

89.4

3.72

 

50

91-101

95.8

5.69

50

92-103

97.5

5.28

 

200

95-108

101.5

6.67

200

89-101

94.8

6.51

3.4 Extraction
In our study, ultrasonic extraction method was developed because of its good efficiency. As for the solvent, petroleum ether were confirmed to be a good choice for the OCPs considered its low polarity though the extraction solvent was changeable. Acetone and ethyl acetate were also tested but more impurity were present in the extraction which made it more difficult to purify the extraction.
    Extraction time is another factor that would influence the extraction efficiency and selectivity of the fluid. A decreased separation efficiency was observed when extraction time decreased from 15min to 10min. It also could not be enhanced by prolonging the extraction time which in the contrast, risk of contamination was increased. Lower recoveries were got when the extraction time was shorter than 10 min and too long time will increase the matrix interference. The extraction carried out at 30ºC would be the best ( showed in Table 4).


Table 4 Optimized conditions and comparison of methods related to OCPs detection in Lonicerajaponica Thunb

Entry

Extraction solvent and method

Extraction time
/min

Extraction temperature
(
ºC)

Decontamination rate a (%)

1

petroleum ether and stirring

8h

Room temperature
(20-25
ºC)

68.7

2

petroleum ether by UFE method

15

25

76.9

3

Acetone + petroleum ether (2+1) with UFE method

15

25

70.5

4

petroleum ether by UFE method

10

30

87.5

5

Acetone + petroleum ether (2+1) with UFE method

15

30

78.1

6

petroleum ether by SFE method

15

30

88.0

4 CONCLUSION
The method described in this paper allows the determination of 8 OCPs residues at one time in 6 CHMs which are Pinellia Tuben, Fleeceflower Root, Eucommiaulomoider Oliv, Dendrobium, Medicinal Evodia Fruit and Lonicera japonica Thunb. The precision and accuracy of the method were encouraging. The advantages of this method such as rapid, relatively simple, small amount of solvents needed and only small sample sizes required make this method particularly attractive in pesticide residue analyzing.

Abbreviations used: UFE, ultrasonic fluid extraction; OCPs, organochlorine pesticides; op' -DDT, 1,1,1-trichloro-2-(2-chlorophenyl)-2-(4-chlorophenyl)-ethane; pp' -DDT, 1,1,1- trichloro-2,2-bis(4-chlorophenyl)-ethane; a-BHC, a -hexachlorocyclohexane, b -BHC, b - hexachlorocyclohexane,c -BHC, c -hexachlorocyclohexane, d-BHC, d-hexachlorocyclohex- ane, pp' -DDE, 1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis (4-chlorophenyl)-ethylene; and pp'-DDD, 1,1-dichloro -2,2-bis(4-chlorophenyl) ethane.

REFERENCES
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[3] B.H Hung, H. Wang, M.R.Lee, J. . Chromaogr. A 2000, 898:245.
[4] C.J. Zhao, G.M. Hao, H.X. Li, Y.G. Chen, Biomed. Chromat. 2002, 16: 441.
[5] M. Volante, M. Pontello, L. Valoti, M. Cattaneo, M. Bianchi, L.Colzani, Pest Manag. Sci. 2000, 56: 618.
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超声提取法用于气相色谱检测几种中草药中有机氯农药残留
卢平 宋宝安 隋吴彬 胡德禹 薛伟 金林红 刘刚 黄荣茂 杨松
(教育部绿色农药与农业生物工程重点实验室,贵州大学精细化工研究开发中心 贵阳 550025)
摘要 超声提取法和气相色谱(63Ni电子捕获检测器)法用于测定半夏、何首乌、杜仲、石斛、吴茱萸、金银花等中药材中的
a-BHC, b-BHC, c-BHC,  d-BHC, op'-DDT, pp'-DDT, pp'-DDE 和 pp'-DDD等有机氯农药残留含量。添加回收率在78%-114%之间,相对标准变异系数2.76%-8.17%。该方法对六种中草药的检测限为0.1-0.2 ng/g。
关键词 农药残留;中草药;气相色谱方法

 

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