Determination of Tembotrione in Vegetative Foods by QuEChERS-High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry

A method for determination of tembotrione in vegetative foods using high performance liquid chromatography. tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) was developed. The sample was pretreated using modified QuEChERS (quick, easy, cheap, effective, rigged and safe) method in which the extraction and clean. up steps were completed in one procedure. The sample was extracted with acidic acetonitrile (containing 0. 1% formic acid), and cleaned up by graphitized carbon black (CCB), and then the extracting solution was centrifuged and filtrated before detection. The HPLC-MS/MS method was performed on a C-18 column with gradient elution of acetonitrile and 0. 1% formic acid at a flow rate of 0. 25 mL/min. The mass spectrometric analysis was carried out with electrospray positive ion source (ESI+), and multiple reaction monitoring mode (MRM). The matrix. matched external standard method was used for quantification. The results showed that the calibration curves were linear in the range of 0. 5-100 ng/mL with the correlation coefficients larger than 0. 996, the limits of quantification (LOQ, S/N >= 10) were 1. 0 mu g/kg in ten different matrix (corn, rice, wheat, grape, apple, raisin, Chinese wolfberry, tomato, cucumber, cabbage). The mean recovery of tembotrione was 82. 0%-111. 8% and the relative deviation (RSD) was 3. 0%- 14.9% at 1. 0, 2. 0 and 10. 0 mu g/kg with three spiked levels. The method is highly effective and suitable for the monitoring of pesticide residue analysis.