Determination of 21 plant growth regulator residues in fruits by QuEChERS-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Abstract

A method for the simultaneous detection of 21 plant growth regulators in fruits by QuEChERS-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) was developed. The samples were initially extracted with acetonitrile containing 1% (v/v) acetic acid, followed by clean-up using the powder of magnesium sulfate and C18. The resulting samples were separated on a C18 column, and detected under positive and negative multiple reactions monitoring (MRM) mode through polarity switching between time segments. The matrix-matched external standard calibration curves were used for quantitative analysis. The linearities of chlormequat chloride, mepiquat chloride, choline chloride, cyclanilide, forchlorfenuron, thidiazuron, inabenfide, paclobutrazol, uniconazole and triapenthenol were in the concentration range of 0.1-500 microg/L, daminozide and 6-benzylaminopurine in the concentration range of 1.0-500 microg/L, 2,3,5-triiodobenzoic acid, 2,4-D, cloprop, 4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid (4-CPA) and trinexapac-ethyl in the concentration range of 2.0-1 000 microg/L, abscisic acid (ABA), gibberellic acid (GA3), 1-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) and indol-3-ylacetic acid (IAA) in the concentration range of 10-1000 microg/L, with the correlation coefficients higher than 0.990. The limits of detection and the limits of quantification of the method were 0.020-6.0 microg/kg and 0.10-15.0 microg/kg, respectively. For all the samples, the average spiked recoveries ranged from 73.0% to 111.0%, and the relative standard deviations (RSDs, n = 6) were in the range of 3.0% - 17.2%. The method is quick, easy, effective, sensitive and accurate, and can meet the requirements for the determination of the 21 plant growth regulator residues in fruits.