Analysis of cyazofamid and its metabolite in the environmental and crop samples using LC-MS/MS

A rapid and robust LC-MS/MS method for the analysis of cyazofamid and its metabolite, 4-chloro-5-p-tolylimidazole-2-carbonitrile (CCIM), in environmental samples (soil and water) and a variety of crops (apple, mandarin, Kimchi cabbage, green pepper, potato and soybean) was established in this study. Those compounds were analyzed by selected reaction monitoring with electrospray ionization (positive mode) on LC-MS/MS. Method limit of quantitations were 2 ng g(-1) (cyazofamid) and 5 ng g(-1) (CCIM) for soil/crop samples, while 0.02 ng mL(-1) (cyazofamid) and 0.05 ng mL(-1) (CCIM) were achieved for water samples. Matrix effect (%) was different depending on sample matrices. For recovery tests, soil/crop samples were treated with QuEChERS method and water samples were extracted with dichloromethane. The recoveries of target analytes in the environmental and crop samples were 80.2 %-105.1 % for cyazofamid and 75.1 %-99.1 % for CCIM (coefficients of variation; ≤16.4 %).