Extraction and Enrichment of Triazole and Triazine Pesticides from Honey Using Air-Assisted Liquid-Liquid Microextraction

In the present work, an easy, fast, and effective approach is developed for the extraction and enrichment of triazole and triazine pesticides in honey by air-assisted liquid-liquid microextraction coupled with gas chromatography-flame ionization detection. Initially, honey is dissolved in an acetonitrile: water mixture and after that a few microliter of a less soluble organic solvent in aqueous phase is added. In order to form a cloudy solution, the extractant mixed with aqueous phase is repeatedly sucked and expelled by a syringe needle into a glass tube. After centrifugation, the sedimented phase (1 mL) is removed with a syringe and injected into de-ionized water. By this action, the settled phase volume is reduced to 10 mu L and the analytes are concentrated, too. Under optimum extraction conditions, limits of detection and quantitation for the studied pesticides are in the ranges of 2 to 5 and 6 to 17 ng/g, respectively. Extraction recoveries and enrichment factors are from 61% to 95% and 61 to 95, respectively.