Simultaneous determination of paraquat and diquat in serum using capillary electrophoresis

The use of capillary electrophoresis for simultaneous separation and detection of the two bipyridylium herbicides, paraquat and diquat, was investigated. Both herbicides were extracted from fortified sera with disposable ODS-silica cartridges. Separation was carried out using a capillary tube (50 microns i.d., 750 mm) of fused silica containing 10 mM glycine-HCl buffer (pH 3.0), 40 mM NaCl and 20% methanol as the carrier. Paraquat and diquat were completely separated in 10 min at an applied potential of 20 kV. On-column UV monitoring allowed detection of both herbicides simultaneously. The assay sensitivity was 0.05 micrograms/mL (signal-to-noise ratio, 2:1), which probably increases with increase in the sample volume of serum. Analytical recovery of both herbicides added to serum was about 97% at concentrations of 0.5-2.0 micrograms/mL.