Determination of agrochemical residues in tobacco using matrix solid-phase dispersion and GC/MS

A matrix solid-phase dispersion (MSPD) method was developed for extracting and cleaning-up the selected agrochemicals in tobacco using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry with selected ion monitoring (GC/MS-SIM). Different parameters of the method were investigated and optimized, such as the type of solid-phase (alumina, $C_{18}$ and Florisil) and eluent (acetone, acetonitrile, ethylacetate and n-hexane). The best results were obtained using 0.5 g of tobacco sample, 1.0 g of $C_{18}$ as dispersant sorbent, 1.0 g of Florisil as clean-up sorbent and acetonitile saturated with n-hexane as eluting solvent. The method was validated using tobacco samples fortified with agrochemicals at their different concentration levels. This method gave good linearity for the selected agrochemicals of ranging from $0.01{\mu}g/mL$ to $0.1{\mu}g/mL$. Recoveries of the selected agrochemicals in tobacco were more than 80 % and reproducibilities were found to be better than 10 % RSD. Those results suggested that the analytical procedure including MSPD method in combining with GC/MS could be applicable to the rapid determination often the selected agrochemicals in tobacco.