Simultaneous determination of 6 carbamate pesticides and relevant metabolites in oilseeds and oil with the modified fast QuECHERS method by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Abstract

A sensitive and reliable method was developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of 6 carbamate pesticides and relevant metabolites based on the modified fast QuEChERS (quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged and safe) method combined with ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). The method was also applied in the analysis of 23 commonly consumed oilseeds and oil samples. The sample was extracted with acetonitrile for three times and then the extracted solution was filtered directly through 250 mg precipitated silica adsorbent (PSA) and 250 mg C₁₈. The mobile phase was water (containing 0.1% formic acid) and acetonitrile. The external standard protocols were adopted to validate the method in terms of recovery, linearity, precision, sensitivity, and relative standard deviation (RSD) under the optimized conditions. The linear calibration curves with different ranges were established with R² > 0.997 3, limit of detections (LODs) ranged from 0.100 µg/kg to 2.000 µg/kg and limit of quantitations (LOQs) ranged from 0.300 µg/kg to 6.000 µg/kg. The limit of detection meets the detection requirement for the maximum residue limits in practical samples. Meanwhile, the recoveries ranged from 60.2% to 116.6% with associated RSDs ranged from 0.33% to 5.35% in 10 oilseeds matrices and ranged from 61.9% to 116.9% with RSDs ranged from 0.30% to 5.02% in 13 oil matrices. These features do make the UPLC-MS/MS an ideal analytical platform for accurate and high throughput analysis of carbamates residues in the complex matrix.