A sensitive analytical method for the simultaneous determination of trifloxystrobin and its metabolite trifloxystrobin acid in rice including straw, bran, brown rice and soil was developed by using ultra high performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. The fungicide trifloxystrobin and its metabolite trifloxystrobin acid were extracted using acetonitrile with 1% formic acid v/v and subsequently cleaned up by primary secondary amine, octadecylsilane or graphitized carbon black prior to ultra high performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. The determination of two target compounds was achieved in less than 3 min using an electrospray ionization source in positive mode. The limits of detection were below 0.22 μg/kg and the limits of quantification did not exceed 0.74 μg/kg in all matrices, which were much lower than the maximum residue levels established by the Codex Alimentarius Commission. The overall average recoveries in four matrix at three levels (0.1, 1.0 and 5.0 mg/kg) ranged from 74.2 to 107.4% with a relative standard deviations of less than 7.8% (n = 5) for both analytes. The method was demonstrated to be convenient and reliable for the routine monitoring of trifloxystrobin and its metabolite. The developed method was validated and applied for the analysis of degradation study samples.
Keywords: Residues; Rice; Trifloxystrobin; Trifloxystrobin acid; Ultra high performance liquid chromatography.
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