Ming Su1, Licong Jia1,2, Xingqiang Wu1, Hanwen Sun1. 1. College of Chemistry and Environmental Science, Hebei University, Key Laboratory of Analytical Science and Technology of Hebei Province, Baoding, China. 2. Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, China.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Some trace amounts of urea herbicide residues can be transferred to humans via the food chain, thereby being potentially harmful to human health. The development of a robust analytical methodology for effective sample preparation and simultaneous determination of herbicide residues in vegetable samples is required for achieving food safety. RESULTS: The diuron-molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) synthesized have excellent affinity and high selectivity to phenylureas (monolinuron, isoproturon, diuron and linuron) and tebuthiuron. A novel automated procedure with better selectivity for vegetable sample treatment was developed by integrated matrix solid-phase dispersion-accelerated solvent extraction clean-up in situ. Five herbicides can be baseline separated with runtime down to 5 min by ultra-performance liquid chromatography, and good linearity was obtained with a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.9999. The limit of quantification of the method was in the range of 0.8-2.3 µg kg-1 . Diuron residue in cherry tomato sample was found to be 40 µg kg-1 . CONCLUSION: The developed method has satisfactory selectivity, good linearity, high sensitivity and accuracy as well as speediness, and can ensure rapid selective extraction and sensitive multi-residue analysis at low microgram per kilogram levels of the herbicides in vegetable food.
BACKGROUND: Some trace amounts of urea herbicide residues can be transferred to humans via the food chain, thereby being potentially harmful to human health. The development of a robust analytical methodology for effective sample preparation and simultaneous determination of herbicide residues in vegetable samples is required for achieving food safety. RESULTS: The diuron-molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) synthesized have excellent affinity and high selectivity to phenylureas (monolinuron, isoproturon, diuron and linuron) and tebuthiuron. A novel automated procedure with better selectivity for vegetable sample treatment was developed by integrated matrix solid-phase dispersion-accelerated solvent extraction clean-up in situ. Five herbicides can be baseline separated with runtime down to 5 min by ultra-performance liquid chromatography, and good linearity was obtained with a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.9999. The limit of quantification of the method was in the range of 0.8-2.3 µg kg-1 . Diuron residue in cherry tomato sample was found to be 40 µg kg-1 . CONCLUSION: The developed method has satisfactory selectivity, good linearity, high sensitivity and accuracy as well as speediness, and can ensure rapid selective extraction and sensitive multi-residue analysis at low microgram per kilogram levels of the herbicides in vegetable food.