Determination of the herbicide acetochlor by fluorescence polarization immunoassay

Abstract

A fluorescence polarization immunoassay procedure was developed for determining the herbicide acetochlor from the group of chloroacetanilides. Conjugates of fluorescent labeled acetochlor derivatives (tracers) with glycylaminofluorescein and ethylenediaminofluorescein were synthesized. The effect of the tracer structure on the analytical characteristics of the determination and on antigen-antibody binding constants was studied. The developed immunoassay procedures are characterized by a detection limit of 10 ng/mL and an analytical range of 0.01–10 µg/mL. The procedure is highly specific; other pesticides caused no interference with the determination of acetochlor, and the percent cross-reactivities for related chloroacetanilide herbicides were no higher than 2.4% for metolachlor and lower than 0.1% for alachlor.