BACKGROUND: It is hard to control the agricultural products exceeding MRL (maximum residue limit) before forwarding. Therefore, NAQS (National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service, South Korea) established PHRL (pre-harvest residue limit) on agricultural products during their cultivation periods. This study was performed to set the PHRLs of peach during cultivation period, and also to estimate biological half-lives for residues of clothianidin and fluquinconazole. METHODS AND RESULTS: Two groups of peach were treated under Korean GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) with application time, single and triple treatments. Sample was collected over 14days (each after 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 days. 8times), and clothianidin and fluquinconazole were analyzed by HPLC/DAD and GC/ECD, respectively. CONCLUSION: The biological half-life of clothianidin in single treatment and triple treatment was 5.2days and 7.0days. That of fluquinconazole was also 3.9days and 4.1days, respectively. The PHRL of peach on 10days before harvest was 1.4 mg/kg in clothianidin and 1.8 mg/kg in fluquinconazole.

The biological half-life and final residue levels of buprofezin and teflubenzuron were examined in peaches over a 14-day cultivation period. The residue levels of buprofezin and teflubenzuron were analyzed by chromatographic method with recovery ranging from 84.0% to 96.6%. The biological half-lives of buprofezin and teflubenzuron were 4.88 and 11.49 days at the standard dose, and 4.40 and 10.86 days at a triple dose, respectively. The initial concentration of buprofezin exceeded the maximum residue limit (MRL) set in Korea, but the concentration decreased to below the MRL within 6 days after application. The initial and persisting concentrations of teflubenzuron were all below the prescribed MRL. The final residue levels of buprofezin and teflubenzuron were 0.17 and 0.10 mg•kg −1 following a standard single dose, and 0.20 and 0.23 mg•kg −1 following a triple dose, respectively. The final residue levels of buprofezin and teflubenzuron were also compared with the good agricultural practices standards of the United States and Italy.

Isopyrazam, a new pyrazolecarboxamide fungicide developed by Syngenta, was highly active against foliar powdery mildew pathogens on cucumber, oriental melon and various vegetables. Following foliar applications on cucumber and oriental melon, crop residues were determined using high performance liquid chromatography. For all studies, limit of quantification was 0.02 mg/kg and minimum detection level was 2.0 ng and recoveries were 83.0-88.0% on cucumber, 92.4-104.5% on oriental melon. Isopyrazam was detected 0.07-0.72 mg/kg on cucumber and < 0.02-0.68 mg/kg on oriental melon, respectively. The TMDI (Theoretical Maximum Dailly Intake) of isopyrazam on cucumber and oriental melon was estimated to less than 1.765% of ADI.

Polar pesticides like pymetrozine (log P o w : -0.18) are known to be difficult to analyze. The analytical method of pymetrozine using hydromatrix included in the official method of KFDA was uncommon and provided ambiguous evidence to confirm both the identity and the quantity. Therefore, precise single residue analytical method was developed in representative crops for using liquid-liquid extraction (LLE). The pymetrozine residue was extracted with methanol from 11 representative crops which comprised apple, blueberry, broccoli, cabbage, cherry, crown daisy, hulled rice, Korean cabbage, potato, rice and watermelon. The extract was purified serially by liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) and silica solid phase extraction (SPE). For rice and hulled rice samples, n-hexane partition was additionally adopted to remove nonpolar interferences, mainly lipids. The residue levels were analyzed by HPLC with DAD, using C 8 column. LOQ (limit of quantitation) of pymetroizinie was 1 ng (S/N > 10) and MQL (method quantitation limit) was 0.01 mg/kg. Mean recoveries from 11 crop samples fortified at three levels (MQL, 10 × MQL and 50 × MQL) in triplicate were in the range of 83.1~98.5% with coefficients of variation (CV) of less than 10%, regardless of sample type, which satisfies the criteria of KFDA. The method established in this study could be applied to most of crops as an official and general method for analysis of pymetrozine residue.