Simultaneous determination of three organotin pesticides in fruits and vegetables by high‐performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry. (12th April 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ma, Youning; Chen, Mingxue; Mou, Renxiang; Cao, Zhaoyun
• Is Part Of: Rapid communications in mass spectrometry. Volume 33:Number 9(2019)
• Page Start: 867
• Page End: 874
• Publication Date: 2019-04-12
• Subjects: Mass spectrometry -- Periodicals; 543.65
• DOI: 10.1002/rcm.8409
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0951-4198

Abstract

Abstract : Rationale: The presence of organotins in the environment affects food safety, making it important to monitor the levels of organotin pesticides (OTPs) in fruit and vegetable samples. Methods: In the present study, a simple and low cost method for simultaneous determination of three OTPs (azocyclotin, fenbutatin oxide and triphenyltin hydroxide) in vegetable and fruit samples was developed and validated, based on solid‐phase extraction and liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry. Results: Extraction with acetonitrile containing 0.2% formic acid positively affected the recoveries of the three OTPs. Moreover, the simultaneous purification of the three OTPs was the most efficient using mixed‐mode cation‐exchange cartridges and 5.0% ammonium hydroxide in methanol as eluent, and, in this case, mild matrix effects (−9.3% to 21.6%) were obtained for the three OTPs monitored. The developed method reached limits of quantification of 1 μg kg −1, and linearity was satisfactory, with correlation coefficients >0.995. A fortification study showed that when spiked at 1.0–50.0 μg kg −1 the mean trueness values were from 72.3 to 110.0% in all matrices (three vegetables and three fruits). The intra‐day precision was <14.1%, and the inter‐day precision ( n = 11) was <18.2%. Conclusions: The proposed method was successfully applied to the simultaneous analysis of three OTPs in vegetables and fruits.