A highly sensitive procedure to detect multiple pesticides at trace levels in foods is presented. Initially a comparative study between capillary electrophoresis (CE)-UV and CE-mass spectrometry (MS) is carried out analyzing five pesticides not studied up to now (pyrimethanil, pyrifenox, cyprodinil, cyromazine, and pirimicarb). The comparison between CE-UV and CE-MS is established in terms of separation efficiency, speed of analysis, reproducibility, and sensitivity. A good separation of these compounds is achieved by both techniques using a volatile aqueous buffer containing 0.3 M ammonium acetate/acetic acid at pH 4. Time analysis reproducibility is studied for the same day (n = 5) and three different days (n = 15), showing no significant differences between CE-UV and CE-MS. The study on peak areas reproducibility shows a slightly worse reproducibility for CE-MS compared with CE-UV. The best limit of detection (LOD) that can be achieved for these pesticides using CE-UV was 0.6 microg/mL. CE-MS provides LODs one order of magnitude better than CE-UV. Chemometrics are used to optimize the multiple parameters that play a role in solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and CE-MS analysis (e.g., extraction and desorption times, nebulizer pressure, dry gas flow, dry gas temperature, percentage of organic solvent and acid in the sheath liquid, etc.). The combined use of chemometrics and SPME-CE-MS clearly improves the LODs that can be achieved allowing the detection of pesticides at concentrations down to 15 ng/mL. The usefulness of this approach is demonstrated detecting multiple pesticides in different food samples as grapes and orange juice in a single run. The concentrations detected are below the maximum residue limits (MRLs) permitted for these pesticides in foods corroborating the value of our approach. This work demonstrates, to our knowledge for the first time, the good possibilities of the combined use of SPME-CE-MS and chemometrics.

In this work, the simultaneous separation of a group of 12 pesticides (carbaryl, fensulfothion, mecoprop, fenamiphos, haloxyfop, diclofop, fipronil, profenofos, fonofos, disulfoton, nitrofen, and terbufos) by nano-liquid chromatography with UV detection is described. For the analyses, a 100 μm internal diameter capillary column packed with silica modified with phenyl groups was used. Experimental parameters, including the use of a trapping column for increasing the sensitivity, were optimized and validated. A preliminary study of the applicability of a rapid and practical dispersive solid-phase extraction (DSPE) procedure was developed for the extraction of some of these pesticides (carbaryl, fensulfothion, fenamiphos, fipronil, profenofos, fonofos, disulfoton, nitrofen, and terbufos) from Milli-Q water samples using multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). The method was validated through a recovery study at three different levels of concentration, obtaining limits of detection in the range 0.016-0.067 μg/L (below European Union maximum residue limits) for the majority of the pesticides. In this work, MWCNTs were reused up to five times, representing an important reduction of the waste of stationary phase. Furthermore, DSPE permitted a clear diminution of the total sample treatment time with respect to conventional SPE.

In this work, a new method for the determination in white wines of 12 pesticides widely used in vine cultivars (namely, carbendazim, pirimicarb, metalaxyl, pyrimethanil, procymidone, nuarimol, azoxystrobin, tebufenozide, fenarimol, benalaxyl, penconazole, and tetradifon) using solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and MEKC with diode-array detection (DAD) was developed. The MEKC buffer consisted of 100 mM sodium tetraborate and 30 mM SDS at pH 8.5 with 6% v/v 1-propanol. Reversed-electrode polarity stacking mode (REPSM) was applied as on-line preconcentration strategy. In order to carry out an effective and sensitive determination of these pesticides in wine samples, an off-line SPME procedure was optimized by means of an experimental design. After studying the extraction performance of different SPME coatings, PDMS/divinylbenzene (PDMS/DVB) fibers were found the most appropriate for the extraction of most of these pesticides. Carbendazim and metalaxyl could not be extracted from wine samples. Calibration curves for extracted standards and fortified white wines were studied in order to determine the presence of a matrix effect. The combination of both preconcentration procedures (SPME and REPSM) allowed the determination of ten of these pesticides in white wines at concentrations between 0.054 and 0.113 mg/L. (i.e., levels well below the maximum residue limits (MRLs) allowed for these compounds in wine grapes). Ten homemade wines were they analyzed with the optimized method demonstrating the usefulness of the proposed procedure.

In this work, we have compared the selectivity of two commercial molecularly imprinted polymers (AFFINIMIP®SPE Estrogens and AFFINIMIP®SPE Zearalenone) for the extraction of 12 estrogenic compounds of interest (i.e. 17α-estradiol, 17β-estradiol, estrone, hexestrol, 17α-ethynylestradiol, diethylstibestrol, dienestrol, zearalenone, α-zearalanol, β-zearalanol, α-zearalenol and β-zearalenol) from different water samples. High-performance liquid chromatography coupled with ion trap mass spectrometry with electrospray ionization was used for their determination. Results showed that although both molecularly imprinted polymeric cartridges were specifically designed for different groups of analytes (natural estrogens like estradiol in the first case and zearalenone derivatives in the second) they nearly have the same extraction performance (with recovery values in the range 65-101%) for the same analytes in Milli-Q water because of the cross-reactivity of the polymer. However, when more complex water samples were analyzed, it was clear that the behavior was different and that the AFFINIMIP®SPE Estrogens showed less cross-reactivity than the other cartridge. Validation of the proposed methodology with both cartridges revealed that the extraction was reproducible and that the final limits of detection of the proposed method were in the low ng/L range.

No abstract

The first on-line coupling of CE with MS detection more than 20 years ago provided a very powerful technique with a wide variety of applications, among which food analysis is of special interest, especially that dealing with food safety and food quality applications, the major topics of public interest nowadays. With this review article, we would like to show the most recent applications of CE-MS in both fields by recompiling and commenting articles published between January 2004 and October 2008. Although both applications are difficult to separate from each other, we have included in this work two main sections dealing with each specific field. Future trends will also be discussed.

A new and simple method has been developed for the determination of a group of four benzimidazole pesticides (carbendazim/benomyl, thiabendazole, and fuberidazole), a carbamate (carbaryl), and an organophosphate (triazophos), together with two of their main metabolites (2-aminobenzimidazole, metabolite of carbendazim/benomyl, and 1-naphthol, metabolite of carbaryl) in soils. First, an ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) was performed, followed by evaporation and reconstitution in water. Then, extraction and preconcentration of the analytes was accomplished by two-phase hollow-fiber liquid-phase microextraction (HF-LPME) using 1-octanol as extraction solvent. Parameters that affect the extraction efficiency in HF-LPME technique (organic solvent, pH of the sample, extraction time, stirring speed, temperature, and ionic strength) were deeply investigated. Optimum HF-LPME conditions involved the use of a 2.0 cm polypropylene fiber filled with 1-octanol to extract 10 mL of an aqueous soil extract at pH 9.0 containing 20% (v/v) of NaCl for 30 min at 1440 rpm. Separation and quantification was achieved by HPLC with fluorescence detection (FD). The proposed optimum UAE-HF-LPME-HPLC-FD methodology provided good calibration, precision, and accuracy results for two soils of different physicochemical properties. LODs were in the range 0.001-6.94 ng/g (S/N = 3). With the aim of extending the validation, the HF-LPME method was also applied to different types of waters (Milli-Q, mineral and run-off), obtaining LODs in the range 0.0002-0.57 μg/L.

Review: 181 refs.