Simultaneous determination of three strong polarity herbicides in tea by ion chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry

Abstract

Due to lack of chromogenic groups and fluorescence groups, high boiling point, high polarity, low volatility, and small molecular weight of glyphosate, glufosinate and bentazone, the detection of three analyses were limited in all kinds of food. Herein, a method for the simultaneous determination of glyphosate, glufosinate and bentazone in tea by ion chromatography tandem triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (IC-MS) was developed, which is without organic solvent and complex derivatization. The recoveries of three compounds in different teas (black tea, green tea, white tea) ranged from 80.40 % to 107.00 %, and the intraday precision (n = 6) ranged from 0.57 % to 9.90 %, the daytime precision ranged from 1.00 % to 5.30 %, the quantitative limit (LOQ) ranged from 0.36 to 1.30 µg/L, and the detection limit (LOD) ranged from 0.11 to 0.39 µg/L. Furthermore, the detection limit and quantitative limit of glyphosate, glufosinate and bentazone by this method are lower than other methods in real samples. Meanwhile, the established method was successfully applied to determine the terminal residues of the three analytes in twelve tea samples from commercial market. Therefore, this method can provide reliable technical support for the study of residue status in vegetables and fruits.