Analysis of aldicarb and its metabolites in ginger using ultra performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry coupled with multiplug filtration clean up with multiwalled carbon nanotubes

Abstract

A simple and rapid pretreatment procedure was developed for the simultaneous determination of aldicarb and its metabolites, aldicarb sulfone and aldicarb sulfoxide, in ginger. The samples were extracted with acetonitrile, and then cleaned up with multiplug filtration using multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTS). The eluate was dried with nitrogen gas at room temperature, and redissolved in an acetonitrile-water (5 :95, v/v) mixture, then quantified by ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-ESI-MS/MS) operated in positive multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. A linear relationship was achieved in the range of 0.5-200 μ/L for the peak areas to the mass concentrat ons of the target compounds w th the l near correlat on coefficients (r2) higher than 0. 99. The recoveries at three spiked levels of 2, 20 and 200 μ/kg were in the range from 71.4% to 89.8% with the relative standard deviations (RSDs, n = 6) from 0. 7% to 13. 2% under the selected conditions. The limits of quantification (LOQ, S/N = 10) of aldicarb, aldicarb sulfone, and aldicarb sulfoxide in ginger were 1.0, 2.0 and 1.0 μg/kg, respectively. The results demonstrate that the developed method is rapid, cost-effective, and can meet the requirements of the multiple pesticide residue analysis. The method is applicable to determine aldicarb and its metabolites in ginger.