Pretreatment and determination methods for benzimidazoles: An update since 2005

Benzimidazoles, commonly used as pesticides and veterinary drugs, have posed a threat to human health and the environment due to unreasonable use and lack of valid regulation. Therefore, an up-to-date and comprehensive summary of the pretreatment and analytical approaches in different substrates is urgently needed. The present review consequently updates and covers various newly developed pretreatment methods (e.g., cationic micellar precipitation, magnetic-solid phase extraction, hollow fiber liquid phase microextraction, disperse liquid-liquid microextraction-solidified floating organic drop, stir cake sorptive extraction, solid phase microextraction method, QuEChERS, and molecular imprinted polymer-based methods) since 2005. The review also elaborates and discusses different determination methods (e.g., newly developed HPLC and related methods, improved spectrofluorimetry methods, capillary electrophoresis, and the electrochemical sensor). Furthermore, some critical points and prospects are highlighted, to describe the trends in this area.