Pesticidi i Fitomedicina (Jan 2013)
Efficiencies of Different Methods for Determination of Organophosphate Pesticide Residues in Fermented Wheat Substrate
Abstract
In the present work, the efficiencies of three different sample preparation methods for GC/MS determination of pirimiphos-methyl and chlorpyrifos-methyl residues in wheat (Triticumspelta) samples fermented by Lactobacillus plantarum were compared. All three methods werebased on methanol:acetone=1:1 extraction, while further purification of the obtained sampleswas altered. First purification was through a column containing a mixture of aluminiumoxide and activated charcoal slurry-packed and eluted with dichlormethane, the second waspurification on a florisil column slurry-packed and eluted with ethyl acetate:acetone=4:1, whilethe third was based on a combination of the former two methods, i.e. clean-up through columnsfilled with a mixture of aluminum oxide and activated charcoal slurry-packed and elutedwith ethyl acetate:acetone=4:1. The second method was found the most effective for obtainingsatisfactory recoveries at four fortification levels. For pirimiphos-methyl, recoveries werein the range of 91.3-96.0% and had good reproducibility, i.e. RSD ranging from 2.2-4.1%, whilethe corresponding range for chlorpyrifos-methyl was 81.6-88.2%, and the RSD range 2.5-5.4%.The chosen method was further optimized in order to establish the optimum volume of elutionsolvent used during the clean-up procedures. The highest recoveries of 93.7±3.5% for pirimiphos-methyl and 85.3±2.5% for chlorpyrifos-methyl were obtained after elution with 25 mlvolume of solvent. Considering all, simple, efficient and reliable GC/MS detection of pirimiphosmethyland chlorpyrifos-methyl residues in wheat grain substrate altered by fermentation withL. plantarum was achieved by the two-steps extraction with 25 ml of methanol:acetone=1:1solvent mix for 30 min, followed by a clean-up procedure through a glass column with florisilcoupled with elution by 25 ml of ethyl acetate:acetone=4:1.
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