A Novel Method for the Determination of Fungicide Residues in Tobacco by Ultra-performance Liquid Chromatography–Tandem Mass Spectrometry Combined with Pass-Through Solid-Phase Extraction

Abstract

A novel method for the rapid simultaneous determination of multiple fungicide residues in tobacco was established using ultra-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC–MS/MS) combined with pass-through solid-phase extraction. After a simple vortex extraction of the samples with acetonitrile, the effective pass-through cleanup procedure was adopted to ensure high extraction efficiency and good sample cleanup. Fungicides were well separated on an ACQUITY UPLC™ BEH C18 column in 10 min by gradient elution with positive mode electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry. The analytical performance was demonstrated by the analysis of extracts from tobacco, spiked at three concentration levels ranging from 0.1 to 5.0 mg kg−1 for each pesticide. The recoveries for all compounds were 82.1–104.4% with relative standard deviations (RSDs) less than 10.0%. Good linear relation (r\u2009≥\u20090.9986) was achieved for all studied analytes. The LODs for all analytes ranged from 0.84 to 5.81 μg kg−1 and the LOQs ranged from 2.66 to 18.32 μg kg−1, respectively. Twenty actual samples were determined with this method, and all samples were found to have fungicides. Being simple, accurate, and reliable, this method can be used for the determination of multiple fungicide residues in tobacco.