Determination of glyphosate, glufosinate, and main metabolite aminomethylphosphonic acid residues in dry tea using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Abstract

A method has been developed for the determination of glyphosate (GLY), glufosinate (GLUF), and the main metabolite aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) residues in dry tea based on ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) coupled with pre-column derivatization. A systematic study of the effects of pretreatment methods including extraction and purification procedures was designed and carried out for the determination of GLY, GLUF, and AMPA. The results indicated that the optimal pretreatment method was as follows:the tea sample was first extracted by water in vortex, and then purified by a cation exchange solid-phase extraction column with the elution of 0.5% (v/v) formic acid aqueous solution. Finally, the eluant was derivatized by 9-fluorenylmethyl chloroformate, and the target compounds were separated on a C18 chromatographic column and analysed by UPLC-MS/MS (ESI+). GLY, GLUF, and AMPA showed good linearity in the range of 1-100 μ g/L, with correlation coefficients above 0.991. The limits of detection and limits of quantification were found to be 0.0160-0.0300 mg/kg and 0.0530-0.100 mg/kg, respectively. The average spiked recoveries of GLY, GLUF, and AMPA varied from 78.3% to 108% at three spiked levels (0.0500, 0.400, and 1.20 mg/kg), while the relative standard deviations ranged from 5.46% to 9.63%. The proposed method was utilized to detect 837 batches of tea samples. The detection ratios of GLY, GLUF, and AMPA were 3.46%, 0.24%, and 4.42%, respectively, while 0.24% of the investigated tea samples had values above maximum residue limits. The developed method is simple, rapid, sensitive, and accurate for the determination of GLY, GLUF, and AMPA in dry tea and may be used for routine analysis.