A comparison of the effectiveness of QuEChERS, FaPEx and a modified QuEChERS method on the determination of organochlorine pesticides in ginseng.

Pennante Bruce-Vanderpuije,Hyo-Sub Lee,Sang-Won Park,Geun-Hyoung Choi,David Megson,Jin Hyo Kim,Song-Hee Ryu,Byung-Seok Kim,Tommaso Lomonaco

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0246108

Abstract

This study provides a review of methods used in the determination of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in ginseng and compares the effectiveness of three extraction methods (Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged, and Safe (QuEChERS), a modified QuEChERS and a Fast Pesticide Extraction (FaPEx)) in the analyses of 20 OCPs in ginseng root samples. For each method, sample mass, solvent volume and sorbent mass were varied to identify the optimum combination to effectively isolate analytes of interest from the complex sample matrix. Extracts were analyzed using the gas chromatography-μ-electron capture detector (GC-μ-ECD), and confirmatory analyses performed by gas chromatography-tandem-mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). Eighteen out of 20 OCPs spiked onto in-house prepared ginseng samples produced acceptable recoveries (51–156%) when extracted using QuEChERS and FaPEx. All 20 analytes, including dichlorodiphenyldichloroethane (p, p’- DDD) and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (o, p’-DDT), produced acceptable recoveries (51–129%) with the use of a modified QuEChERS method. The applicability of the modified QuEChERS method was demonstrated through the analysis of ginseng samples grown in endosulfan-treated soil. The samples were analyzed by both GC-μ-ECD and GC-MS/MS with no significant difference identified in the results of each analytical method. This study highlights the applicability of the modified QuEChERS method, in combination with GC- μ-ECD, to determine organochlorine pesticides in ginseng. This may be especially useful for laboratories in developing countries and less advanced institutions without access to MS/MS instrumentation.

Highlights

Pesticides control pests and increase crop yields, but their use has resulted in human health and environmental problems [1,2,3]
Clean-up sorbents used in the studies reviewed included silica, florisil, C18, aminopropyl silicate, primary secondary amine (PSA), graphitized carbon black, and/or a mixture of some of these (Table 1)
The motivation for this study was to establish if an optimized method could allow for accurate determination of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in a complex matrix using GC-μ-ECD

Summary

Introduction

Pesticides control pests and increase crop yields, but their use has resulted in human health and environmental problems [1,2,3]. Pesticide exposure arises from direct routes such as occupational, household and agricultural usage, and indirectly via dietary intake [4, 5]. In most developing and emerging countries within Asia and the Americas, pesticide usage has been steadily increasing within the agricultural sector [7]. Of the major classes of pesticides (insecticides, herbicides and fungicides), some organochlorines are included in the Stockholm Convention list of banned persistent organic pollutants (POPs). These chemicals are endocrine disruptors that negatively affect human reproduction and development [9,10,11,12]. Pesticides with mutagenic, carcinogenic, reproductive toxicants and/or endocrine-disrupting potential are restricted, monitored, and/ or regulated by governing regulatory systems [3]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion