APPLICATION OF QuEChERS METHOD FOR THE DETERMINATION OF PHENYLUREA HERBICIDES IN BEETROOT BY HPLC WITH UV-VIS DETECTION

Abstract

Phenylurea herbicides are an important group of herbicides utilized in weed control. They have been on sale since the 1950s and are still in common use throughout the world from pre- and post-emergence control of many annual and perennial broad-leaved weeds. The aim of this work was to evaluate the utility of the QuEChERS method for the determination of phenylurea pesticides (chlortoluron, isoproturon, linuron, metobromuron, metoxuron, monolinuron) in beetroot by HPLC with UV/Vis detection. Different types of sorbents (PSA, C18, SAX and NH2) and solvents (hexane, ethyl acetate) were applied. The obtained results showed that the best recovery ratios were received for the method with PSA and GCB sorbents and using acetonitrile as an extraction solvent with RSD lower than 15% for most compounds. The linearity of calibration curves was higher than 0.98 for all target analytes. The results show that the QuEChERS method can be successfully applied for the determination of phenylurea herbicides in beetroot.