Trace analysis of military high explosives (2,4,6-trinitrotoluene and hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine) in agricultural crops

This study implements procedural modifications to a previously described methodology with the goal of obtaining the lowest possible detection limits for the analysis of the military explosives in a wide variety of plant tissues. The modified methodology analyzes 1.0-g portions of lyophilized material rather than 1.0-g fresh plant tissue as specified by the previous protocol. The method was found to be applicable to a large diversity of agricultural crop species including tomato, corn kernels, corn stover, radish, lettuce, hot peppers, bell peppers, grapes, carrot, alfalfa, bush bean and soybean. In general, detection limits in the low-ng/g (parts-per-billion, w/w) range were achieved for both hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine and 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.