A method is described for the determination of organochlorine and organophosphate pesticide residues in fruits, vegetables and sediments. The concentrated solvent extract was sealed in a polymeric membrane tube, dialysed in cyclohexane and the solvent replaced with hexane. The organophosphates were analysed on a specific thermionic detector without further clean-up. For the organochlorine pesticides the extract was eluted through 3 g of alumina and analysed on GC/ECD. The clean-up for sediment extract was carried out on a 10 g alumina column with 100 mL hexane containing 5% acetone and the eluate was concentrated to 5 mL. The detection limit for organophosphates on a 40 g sample and a final volume of 10 mL was on the average 0.01 mg/kg. The detection limit for organochlorine pesticides, with the final volume of 25 mL, was 0.005 mg/kg for all pesticides except for p,p'-DDT and endosulfan sulphate, which was 0.01 mg/kg. The detection limit for organochlorine pesticides in sediment, with the final volume of 2 mL, was less than 1 microgram/kg and for organophosphate pesticides less than 10 micrograms/kg when the final volume was made to 0.5 mL. At the detection limits the method produced a very high coefficient of variation for both organochlorine and organophosphate pesticides.
A novel procedure is described for simple removal of coextractives prior to analysis of fruits and vegetables for azinphos-methyl and azinphos-ethyl residues. The solvent extract is concentrated, placed in a polymeric membrane tube, and then dialyzed in cyclohexane. Both azinphos-methyl and azinphos- ethyl diffuse into the surrounding solvent while coextractants remain inside the membrane. The dialyzing solvent is exchanged during concentration with n-hexane and analyzed without further cleanup by gas-liquid chromatography with a specific thermionic detector. The detection limit for a 25 g grape sample with final volume of extract made to 15 mL was 0.01 mg/kg. Recoveries of both residues from grapes averaged 107% (spike levels of 0.3 to 2.0 mg/kg). From a 20 g spinach sample, recoveries averaged 82% for azinphos-methyl and 72% for azinphos-ethyl when final volume of extract was made to 5 mL (spike levels of 0.1 to 1.0 mg/kg). Recoveries from 20 types of fruits and vegetables (20 g sample spiked at 1 mg/kg for both azinphos-methyl and azinphos-ethyl) were consistently greater than 70%, except for strawberries (61–67%) and avocado (28–34%). The high lipid content of avocado may impede diffusion of azinphosmethyl and azinphos-ethyl through the polymeric membrane. A field evaluation of the procedure showed a strong correlation (r = 0.957) between azinphos-methyl residues on grapes and treatments with 2 spray formulations. The membrane cleanup procedure is a simple and cost-effective alternative to other column or liquid–liquid partitioning procedures for azinphos-methyl and azinphosethyl residue analysis.
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