Determination of triazine residues in herbal plants using molecularly imprinted polymerextraction followed by UPLC-MS/MS

Abstract

The present study described the development and validation of a sensitive and selective analytical method for simultaneous determination of 23 triazines in herbal plants. Pesticides were extracted using a modified QuEChERS procedure, and the extracts were cleaned up with gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction (MISPE) followed by UHPLC-MS/MS. The molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were prepared by a traditional precipitation method using N-butylmelamine as a template and methacrylic acid (MAA) as a functional monomer. The linearity of the calibration curve for each pesticide was r² > 0.99 in the concentration range of 0.25 to 50 μg L⁻¹. The validation studies were performed on six herbal plants and the mean recoveries of most triazines were in the range of 60–100% at 0.01, 0.1 and 1.0 mg kg⁻¹ with RSD less than 15%. The LODs were less than 0.003 mg kg⁻¹. Overall, the method has provided the possibility of applying MIPs to the separation and enrichment of triazines from complicated matrices like herbal plants.