Determination of triazine herbicides in fruits and vegetables using dispersive solid-phase extraction coupled with LC-MS

A simple, rapid, and sensitive liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) method was successfully developed for the determination of three chloro-s-triazine herbicides, viz. atrazine, simazine, and propazine, two thiomethyl-s-triazine ones, viz. ametryn and prometryn, and prometon in fruits and vegetables. The instrumental parameters affecting LC separation and MS detection were investigated and the best conditions were selected. Samples were extracted and purified by dispersive solid-phase extraction (dispersive-SPE) with a primary-secondary amine sorbent. Three typical representative samples (luffa, broad bean, and grape) were selected to investigate the effect of different matrices on pesticide recoveries and assay precision after spiking at 0.05 mg/kg. Matrix composition did not interfere significantly with the determination of these pesticides. The recoveries were, with a few exceptions, in the range of 80-110% with relative standard deviations less than 10% (n = 5). In addition, this method was also applied to 21 different kinds of agriculture products collected from the local market, and two of the six triazines could be detected and quantified.