Skip to main content
CORESTA Congress, Shanghai, 2008, SSPT 29

Development of new Multi-Residue Methods for determination of agrochemicals in tobacco by using LC-MS/MS and GC-MS

KISHI H.; NAKABAYASHI T.; YAZAKI T.; TAKAHASHI A.
Japan Tobacco Inc., Leaf Tobacco Research Lab., Oyama, Tochigi, Japan.

In 2004, we had reported on the Multi-Residue Methods (MRMs) and Single-Residue Methods (SRMs) combination system for targeting 99 agrochemicals listed in the CORESTA Guide No. 1. The MRMs and SRMs analyze 89 and 10 agrochemicals, respectively. The MRMs used GC-ECD, GC-FPD, GC-MS, HPLC and LC-MS as the analytical instruments. GC-MS, GC-ECD, GC-FPD and HPLC were the analytical instruments for the SRMs. The 2004 system gave us satisfactory results in CORESTA proficiency testing of Sub-Group on Pesticides. However, each procedure of MRMs was relatively complicated. We started to study new MRMs to develop more efficient systems using LC-MS/MS and GC-MS. After several trials, we succeeded in including six agrochemicals, which were analyzed by the SRMs. They were 2,4-D, dicamba, 2,4,5-T, captan, folpet and dinocap. The one agrochemical, camphechlor, was eliminated from the new MRMs, due to low sensitivity. Therefore, the new MRMs can analyze 94 agrochemicals in CORESTA Guide No. 1. The recoveries of all these 94 agrochemicals were within the satisfactory range; from 70% to 120%. Each Limit of Quantification (LOQ) of 94 agrochemicals was investigated. LOQs of 75 agrochemicals were lower or the same as those obtained by the MRMs of 2004. The other 19 agrochemicals' LOQs were slightly higher than the former MRMs and/or SRMs. However, LOQs of these 19 agrochemicals were the same or less than the GRLs defined in CORESTA Guide No. 1. The new MRMs decreased the analytical procedure, and the efficiency of our agrochemical analysis was increased compared to the former MRMs. The new MRMs also decreased the consumption of organic solvents for the extraction process. The detailed analytical procedure including the extraction process of new MRMs will be presented.