Quantification of triazine herbicides in soil by microwave-assisted extraction and high-performance liquid chromatography

A method for the determination of herbicides residues, triazine (atrazine, metribuzin, ametryn, and terbutryn), in soil samples with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-UV detection is described. The proposed method is based on microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) of soil samples for 4 min at 80% of 850-W magnetron outputs in the presence of mixture of solvents (methanol/acetonitrile/ethylacetate). Related important factors influencing the MAE efficiency, such as the solvent type and volume, irradiation energy, and time, were optimized in detail. Calibration curve ranges established using HPLC for metribuzin, atrazine, ametryn, and terbutryn are 1.0-19.0, 0.9-18.0, 0.6-11.0, and 0.7-11.0 A mu g mL (-aEuro parts per thousand 1), respectively. The limits of detection of metribuzin, atrazine, ametryn, and terbutryn are 0.30, 0.24, 0.16, and 0.20 A mu g mL (-aEuro parts per thousand 1) while limits of quantification are 1.0, 0.80, 0.50, and 0.60 A mu g mL (-aEuro parts per thousand 1), respectively. A Plackett-Burman factorial design was used as a screening method in order to select the variables that influence MAE extraction. The recoveries of the method at three different spiked levels were assessed by analyzing real soil samples and were found to be in the range of 83.33 +/- 0.12-96.33 +/- 0.23 with good precision (< 8%).