An analytical method for prohexadione in Chinese cabbage and apple

Area of Science:

• Agricultural Chemistry
• Analytical Chemistry
• Food Science

Background:

• Prohexadione is a plant growth regulator used in agriculture.
• Accurate and reliable methods are needed to monitor its residues in food products.
• Regulatory compliance requires validated analytical techniques for residue determination.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a regulatory residue determination method for prohexadione.
• To establish sensitive and precise analytical conditions for prohexadione detection.
• To confirm the applicability of the method in real-world food samples.

Main Methods:

• High-Performance Liquid Chromatography with Ultraviolet Detection (HPLC-UVD) was employed.
• Sample preparation involved acidic acetonitrile extraction, ion-suppression liquid-liquid partitioning, and anion exchange cartridge cleanup.
• Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was used for confirmation.

Main Results:

• The method demonstrated limits of detection (LOD) of 0.005 mg/kg and limits of quantitation (LOQ) of 0.02 mg/kg.
• Good linearity was observed in the 0.02-2.5 mg/kg range, with accuracy from 84.1-94.1% and precision from 2.4-6.9%.
• LC-MS/MS conditions were optimized for sensitive and specific confirmation.

Conclusions:

• The developed HPLC-UVD method is suitable for regulatory residue analysis of prohexadione.
• The method meets the required sensitivity, accuracy, and precision for Chinese cabbage and apple analysis.
• The validated method can be applied to monitor prohexadione residues in food commodities.