Determination of Quintozene Residues in Agricultural Commodities Using GC-ECD/MS

Abstract

Quintozene, pentachloronitrobenzene (PCNB) is a contact fungicide for control of soilborne phytopathogenic fungi during cultivation of diverse crops. It was introduced to agricultural use around 1930's as a substitute for mercurial disinfectants. Although quintozene had been first registered in Korea on 1969. However, now it was banned to use due to its high residue levels in selected harvest products. Also, high possibility is expected that the residue may be contained in imported agricultural commodities as it is still used widely over the world. Therefore, this study was conducted to establish a determination method for quintozene residue in crops using GC/ECD/MS. Quintozene residue was extracted with acetonitrile from representative samples of five raw products which comprised hulled rice, soybean, Kimchi cabbage, green pepper, and apple. The extract was diluted with saline water, and n-hexane partition was followed to recover quintozene from the aqueous phase. Florisil column chromatography was additionally employed for final clean up of the extract. The quintozene was quantitated by GLC with ECD, using a DB-1 capillary column. The crops were fortified with quintozene at 3 levels per crop. Mean recoveries ranged from 79.9% to 102.7% in five representative agricultural commodities. The coefficients of variation were less than 4.3%. Quantitative limit of quintozene was 0.004 mg/kg in representative five crop samples. A GC/MS with selected-ion monitoring was also provided to confirm the suspected residue. Therefore, this analytical method was reproducible and sensitive enough to determine the residue of quintozene in agricultural commodities.