Understanding the Metabolism and Dissipation Kinetics of Flutriafol in Vegetables under Laboratory and Greenhouse Scenarios

Abstract

Flutriafol is a systemic triazole fungicide that is used to control diseases in various crops. A study was developed to evaluate the metabolism and dissipation of flutriafol in two different scenarios: laboratory and greenhouse conditions. Courgette and tomato samples treated with a commercial product (IMPACT® EVO) at the manufacturer recommended dose were analyzed, and courgette samples were also treated at double dose. Ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with Q-Orbitrap mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap-MS), performing targeted and non-targeted approaches (suspect screening and unknown analysis), were used to analyze the samples. The dissipation of flutriafol was fitted to a biphasic kinetic model, with a persistence, expressed as half-life (t1/2), lower than 17 days. During suspect screening, three metabolites (triazole alanine, triazole lactic acid and triazole acetic acid) were tentatively identified. Unknown analysis led to the identification of four additional metabolites (C16H14F2N4, C16H14F2N4, C19H17F2N5O2 and C22H23F2N3O6). The results revealed that the proposed methodology is reliable for the determination of flutriafol and its metabolites in courgette and tomato, and seven metabolites could be detected at low concentration levels. The highest concentration of metabolites was found in the laboratory conditions at 34.5 µg/kg (triazole alanine). The toxicity of flutriafol metabolites was also evaluated, and some of them could be more toxic than the parent compound.