Extraction and enrichment of triazole and triazine pesticides from honey using air-assisted liquid-liquid microextraction.

UNLABELLED: In the present work, an easy, fast, and effective approach is developed for the extraction and enrichment of triazole and triazine pesticides in honey by air-assisted liquid-liquid microextraction coupled with gas chromatography-flame ionization detection. Initially, honey is dissolved in an acetonitrile: water mixture and after that a few microliter of a less soluble organic solvent in aqueous phase is added. In order to form a cloudy solution, the extractant mixed with aqueous phase is repeatedly sucked and expelled by a syringe needle into a glass tube. After centrifugation, the sedimented phase (1 mL) is removed with a syringe and injected into de-ionized water. By this action, the settled phase volume is reduced to 10 μL and the analytes are concentrated, too. Under optimum extraction conditions, limits of detection and quantitation for the studied pesticides are in the ranges of 2 to 5 and 6 to 17 ng/g, respectively. Extraction recoveries and enrichment factors are from 61% to 95% and 61 to 95, respectively. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: The proposed approach can be applied for determination of pesticide in honey and may be developed to other complex matrices.