Determination of amitrole in agricultural products by high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Abstract

A high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method (HPLC-MS/MS) was developed for the analysis of amitrole residues in agricultural products. The samples were extracted by 25% acetone for wheat, fish, pork and liver samples, 1% acetic acid-25% acetone for maize and peanut samples, 1% acetic acid solution for honeysuckle, the powder of ginger, the powder of bunge prickly ash and tea leaves samples, 1% acetic acid solution-dichloromethane for apple, pineapple, spinach, carrot, perilla leaves samples, respectively, followed by liquid-liquid extraction with dichloromethane. The samples were then cleaned up by PCX or Envi-Carb solid-phase extraction cartridge. The amitrole was determined and confirmed by HPLC-MS/MS. The results showed a linear relationship in the range of 0.005 -0.1 mg/kg for amitrole. The correlation coefficient was 0.999 7. The average recoveries of amitrole in wheat, maize, peanut, pineapple, apple, carrot, spinach, pork, the powder of ginger, the powder of bunge prickly ash, perilla, liver, fish, honeysuckle and tea were 67.5% - 98.1%. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) were 1.0% - 9.8%. The limits of quantitation were 10 microg/kg for wheat, maize, peanut, pineapple, apple, carrot, spinach, pork, perilla, liver, fish, honeysuckle and 20 microg/kg for the powder of bunge prickly ash, the powder of ginger and tea, respectively. The method is simple, sensitive and accurate.