Residue analysis of 500 high priority pesticides: Better by GC–MS or LC–MS/MS?

Abstract

This overview evaluates the capabilities of mass spectrometry (MS) in combination with gas chromatography (GC) and liquid chromatography (LC) for the determination of a multitude of pesticides. The selection of pesticides for this assessment is based on the status of production, the existence of regulations on maximum residue levels in food, and the frequency of residue detection. GC-MS with electron impact (EI) ionization and the combination of LC with tandem mass spectrometers (LC-MS/MS) using electrospray ionization (ESI) are identified as techniques most often applied in multi-residue methods for pesticides at present. Therefore, applicability and sensitivity obtained with GC-EI-MS and LC-ESI-MS/MS is individually compared for each of the selected pesticides. Only for one substance class only, the organochlorine pesticides, GC-MS achieves better performance. For all other classes of pesticides, the assessment shows a wider scope and better sensitivity if detection is based on LC-MS. # 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., Mass Spec Rev 25: 2006

Multiresidue analysis of 47 pesticides in cooked wheat flour and polished rice by liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry

“…Until recently, the multiresidue methods that have frequently been used were gas chromatography (GC) equipped with an electroncapture detector (ECD), nitrogen-phosphorous detector (NPD) or mass spectrometer (MS) (Sherma, 2001;Pang et al, 2006). For less volatile and thermally unstable residues that are not GC-compatible, liquid chromatography coupled to a UV and fluorescence detector or mass spectrometer has been used (Picó et al, 2000;Schwedler et al, 2000;Sancho et al, 2003;Alder et al, 2006). However, such methods frequently suffer from low selectivity and sensitivity, or a tedious clean-up procedure is required for sampling.…”

Application of gas chromatography–(triple quadrupole) mass spectrometry with atmospheric pressure chemical ionization for the determination of multiclass pesticides in fruits and vegetables

“…Matrix-matched standards were prepared for each sample matrix as follows: after the cleanup step, 50 L of the MeCN extract obtained from a blank sample were mixed with 250 L of hexane, 150 L of acetone, and 50 L of the pesticide standard solution in 6 hexane at adequate concentration to obtain a calibration range of 0.1-100 ng/mL (corresponding to 1-1000 g/kg in sample).…”

“…For a major part of the pesticides, liquid chromatography combined with mass spectrometry is considered as the method of choice [6]. However, many pesticides are also amenable to gas chromatography (GC) coupled to mass spectrometry (MS) which makes it a valuable complementary technique, especially because it is the only option for certain pesticide classes and therefore has to be used anyway.…”

Solid-phase microextraction-liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry applied to the analysis of insecticides in honey

“…In many application dealing with pesticide residue analysis, electrospray in positive ionization mode was used (Alder et al 2006;Pico et al 2004). However, the literature shows that the best sensitivity is obtained either by electrospray or APCI, depending on the make of the instrument and design of the ionization source (Pico et al 2004).…”