Simple and rapid method for simultaneous gas chromatographic determination of bitertanol, metalaxyl, oxadixyl, propiconazole, and triadimefon residues in cucumbers

Abstract

A simple and rapid method for the determination of bitertanol, metalaxyl, oxadixyl, propiconazole and triadimefon residues in cucumbers has been developed. The fungicide residues were extracted from the sample with ethyl acetate and determined, after an automated gel permeation chromatographic clean-up, by GC with nitrogen–phosphorus detection. Cucumbers fortified with fungicides in the laboratory were analysed using the proposed method and that of Luke, Frooberg, Masumoto and Doose (J. Assoc. Off. Anal. Chem., 1981, 64, 1187). For the proposed method, mean recoveries ranged from 87.9% for bitertanol to 96.5% for oxadixyl. For the method of Luke et al. mean recoveries ranged from 79.8% for triadimefon to 97.8% for bitertanol. Cucumbers treated with the fungicides in the field were also analysed by these two methods. For the determination of all these five fungicides, no difference was observed at the 5% significance level.