Determination of pyrethroid residues in tobacco and cigarette smoke by capillary gas chromatography

Abstract

The extraction of fenpropathrin, cyhalothrin, cypermethrin, fenvalerate and deltamethrin from tobacco ( Nicotina tobaccum) and cigarette smoke condensate with acetone, followed by partition of resulting acetone mixture with petroleum ether, was investigated and found suitable for capillary gas chromatography (GC) residue analysis. Florisil column clean-up was found to provide clean-up procedure for tobacco and cigarette smoke condensate permitting analysis to ≤0.01 μg·g −1 for most of the pyrethroids by GC with a 63Ni electron capture detector (GC–ECD). Quantitative determination was obtained by the method of external standards. Cigarettes made from flue-cured tobacco spiked with different amounts of pyrethroids were used and the pyrethroid levels in mainstream smoke were determined. For all the pyrethroid residues, 1.51–15.50% were transferred from tobacco into cigarette smoke.