Liquid Chromatographic Determination of Etofenprox Residues in Foods with Mass-Spectrometric Confirmation

BACKGROUND: An official analytical method was developed to determine etofenprox residues in agricultural commodities using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). METHODS AND RESULTS: The etofenprox residue was extracted with acetone from representative samples of five raw products which comprised rice grain, apple, mandarin, cabbage, and soybean. The extract was then serially purified by liquid-liquid partition and Florisil column chromatography. For rice and soybean samples, acetonitrile/n-hexane partition was additionally coupled to remove nonpolar lipids. Reversed phase HPLC using an octadecylsilyl column was successfully applied to separate etofenprox from co-extractives. Intact etofenprox was sensitively detected by ultraviolet absorption at 225 nm. Recovery experiment at the quantitation limit validated that the proposed method could apparently determine the etofenprox residue at 0.02 mg/kg. Mean recoveries from five crop samples fortified at three levels in triplicate were in the range of 93.6~106.4%. Relative standard deviations of the analytical method were all less than 10%, irrespective of crop types. A selected-ion monitoring LC/mass spectrometry with positive atmospheric-pressure chemical ionization was also provided to confirm the suspected residue. CONCLUSION(s): The proposed method is simple, rapid and sensitive enough to be employed in routine inspection or monitoring of agricultural products for the etofenprox residue.