Determination of amitraz and its degradation products and monitoring degradation process in quince and cucumber

Abstract

ABSTRACTAmitraz is a non-systemic acaracide and insecticide. Current maximum residue limits for amitraz are stated as ‘Amitraz including the metabolites containing the 2,4-dimethylaniline moiety’. Therefore, determination of amitraz and its all degradation products are important. In this study, we develop a gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) method for determination of amitraz and its degradation products 2,4 dimethylaniline (DMA), 2,4 dimethylformamidine (DMF) and N-(2,4-dimethyl phenyl)-N’-methylformamidine (DMPF) in cucumber and quince. The mechanism of the degradation process was monitored at different temperatures. Amitraz and its degradation products were extracted using the QuEChERS method. To determine amitraz and its degradation products, we used GC/MS. Quantification was carried out by using selected ion monitoring, and total ion chromatogram was used to monitor additional degradation products. The method was validated by studying linearity, limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ), recovery and precision. The mechanism of the degradation process was monitored at different temperatures. Degradation of amitraz mainly to three degradation products, namely DMA, DMF and DMPF, increased with temperature. Besides these three main degradation products, two other new degradation products were detected.