A multiresidue method for the analysis of pesticide residues in polished rice (Oryza sativa L.) using accelerated solvent extraction and gas chromatography and confirmation by mass spectrometry.

An analytical procedure using accelerated solvent extraction and gas chromatography with an electron capture detector has been optimized to simultaneously determine the residue of two insecticides (diazinon and EPN) and one fungicide (isoprothiolane) in polished rice and was confirmed by GC-mass spectrometry. Several parameters, including temperature, pressure, solvent ratio, cell size and cell cycle, were thoroughly investigated to find the optimal extraction conditions. The average recoveries of the three pesticides were between 82.7 and 126.4% at spiking levels of 0.1 and 0.5 ppm. The relative standard deviations were less than 7% for all of the recovery tests. The optimum accelerated solvent extraction operating conditions were 100 degrees C, 1500 atm, acetone-n-hexane (20:80 v/v) as the extraction solvent, two cycles, and a cell size of 33 ml. The total extraction time was approximately 20 min. The optimized procedure has also been applied to the determination of diazinon, isoprothiolane and EPN in real rice samples. In conclusion, accelerated solvent extraction was used for the first time for the analysis of diazinon, isoprothiolane and EPN in polished rice and offers the possibility of a fast and simple process for obtaining a quantitative extraction of the studied pesticides. Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.