Comparison of Extraction and Clean-up Methods Modified in Different Ways for the Determination of Pesticide Residues in Bees

Abstract

As a result of the unconscious use of pesticides, honeybees are adversely affected, thus causing colony losses all over the world. In this research, different extraction and clean-up methods were compared on bee samples based on the QuEChERS method which is the most widely used pesticide analysis method in food. This research includes application studies for the multi residue method (MRM), which allows analysis of more than one pesticide. During the extraction phase, 7 different methods were compared, while the method with the most suitable repeatability and recovery values among these methods was taken to the clean-up phase. In the clean-up phase, 5 different clean-up methods were tried on the method which yielded the best values in extraction. In terms of average percentage recovery values, the 1stextraction method ranks first with 72 active substances between 70-120%, and the 3rd clean-up method with 92 active substances. Thus, while the number of active substances with suitable recovery values in the selected extraction method was 72, it increased to 92 with the continuation of the clean-up method, achieving a success rate of 92%. It is recommended to use this method in pesticide residue analyzes in bees with its outstanding features such as completing the analyzes in a short time, working easily with the infrastructure that can be found in all control laboratories, low analysis costs, ease of use, and reliability.