A method using liquid chromatography with diode-array detection, LC-DAD, has been developed for the determination of the pesticide diflubenzuron and some of its major metabolites, such as 2,6-difluorobenzamide, 4-chlorophenylurea, and 4-chloroaniline in pine-needles. Samples were extracted into acetonitrile and further cleaned-up through aminopropyl cartridge. LC was performed on a CI8 column using acetonitrilemethanol-water (50:2:48) as mobile phase at 1 mL min-' at room temperature. 1857 Copyright 0 1998 by Marcel Dekker, Inc Downloaded by [University of Auckland Library] at 11:55 03 November 2014 1858 RODRIGUEZ ET AL.The detection limits were lower than 0.6 ng mL-' in all cases, except for 2,6-diflurobenzamide that was 9.4 ng mL-'. Recoveries of the compounds from supplied pine-needle samples were higher than 83% with a relative standard deviation lower than 2.6%.