Improvement of Analytical Method for Propineb Residues in Glycine max (L.) Merrill and Pisum sativum L. using Deproteinization Process

BACKGROUND: Dithiocarbamate fungicide propineb can be analyzed quantitatively by derivatization reaction followed by HPLC/UVD, which has high reproducibility and stability. However, the presence of high protein in soybeans and peas affects the derivatization process re-sulting in extremely low recoveries. Therefore, this study was conducted to improve the analytical method for analysis of propineb in soybeans and peas by applying a deproteinization process using chloroform-gel method. METHODS AND RESULTS: The deproteinization process was carried out up to 6 times for soybeans and 5 times for peas using 50 mL chloroform. After 4 times of deproteinization process followed by a derivatization reaction with methyl iodide, the recovery yields of propineb in both pulses were >90%. However, the recovery yield tended to decrease when the deproteinization process was performed more than 5 times. The method limit of quantification (LOQ) was 0.04 mg/L. The recovery conducted in triplicate at 10 times and 50 times of the LOQ ranged from 87.2 to 95.0 % with a coefficient of variation <10%. CONCLUSION(S): This study confirmed that 4 times of deproteinization process using the chloroform-gel method was effective when derivatizing and analyzing dithiocarbamate fungicides in pulses with high protein content. However, depending on the initial protein content present in the pulses, there was a difference in the recovery: the lower the protein content, the higher the recovery rate of propineb. It is expected that the method proposed in this study could be applied to remove high content of protein as analytical interference substance from agricultural samples.