Simultaneous determination of afidopyropen and its metabolite in vegetables, fruit and soil using UHPLC-MS/MS

A new analytical method using the quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged and safe (QuEChERS) procedure for simultaneous determination of afidopyropen and its metabolite M440I007 residues in tomato, watermelon, pepper, cucumber, pear, grape, cabbage and soil samples was developed using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. The target compound was determined in less than 5.0 min using an electrospray ionisation source in positive mode (ESI⁺). The limit of quantification was 1 μg kg^-1 in different matrices. Two sorbents primary secondary amine and graphitised carbon black were used in the QuEChERS procedure, and matrix-matched standards gave satisfactory recoveries and relative standard deviation (RSD) values in different matrices at three spiked levels (1, 10 and 500 μg kg^-1). For afidopyropen, the recoveries ranged from 83% to 104% with an intra-day relative standard deviation (RSDr) of 1-8%, while they were from 80% to 103% with RSDr of 2-8% for M440I007. Reproducibility ranged between 1% and 19% for the three spiked levels.