An Efficient Analysis of Residual Famphur in Several Species of Honey Using Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

Famphur is one of the pesticides used in bee‐farming and is a highly hazardous pesticide, as classified by the World Health Organization (WHO). In this study, a method analyzing the residual famphur in four kinds (acasia, wild, chestnut, and manuka) of honey was established, using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC/MS) after effective sample preparation with solid‐phase extraction (SPE). Optimization of SPE parameters for sample pretreatment was performed by varying the pH of sample and the volume and type of the extraction solvent. Gas chromatographic separation was carried out using a DB‐35 MS column (30 m length × 0.20 mm i.d. × 0.33 μm film thickness). Based on the established sample preparation technique and GC/MS parameters, the limits of detection (LOD) and quantitation (LOQ) in fortified sample were 2 ng/g and 5 ng/g, respectively. The precision and accuracy within the calibration curves were 1.0–27.7 RSD % and 63.7–118.4%, respectively. The square of the correlation coefficients (r2) obtained from the concentration range (5–50 ng/g) of calibration curves for quantitative assay was 0.9883 to 0.9958. The established method was applied to the analysis of famphur in domestic and imported honey samples.