Enantioselective degradation of indoxacarb from different commercial formulations applied to tea

The stereoselective degradation of indoxacarb enriched with (+)-S-indoxacarb (S/R:70/30) was investigated in three typical green teas. A convenient and precise chiral method was developed and validated for measuring indoxacarb enantiomers in green tea. The developed method was based on high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry using a Chiralpak IC column. The stereoselective degradation of indoxacarb enantiomers showed that the (+)-S-enantiomer dissipated faster than the (-)-R-enantiomer in all three typical tea farms. However, no enantiomerization was observed after applying pure (+)-S-indoxacarb. Residues on tea plant of the active ingredient (+)-S-indoxacarb from suspension concentrate (SC) was more persistent than that from emulsifiable concentrate (EC).