Direct Chiral Determination of Acephate and Its Metabolite Methamidophos in Vegetables Using QuEChERS by Gas Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Currently, methamidophos, the main metabolite of acephate in the plants, has been paid particular attention in the risk evaluation of acephate because of its severely accurate toxicity, but the chirality of methamidophos and acephate has not been taken into account. In this study, a chiral separation and analysis method was developed to help evaluate the risks posing to the environment and human health. The efficiency of four commercial chiral capillary columns to accomplish enantioseparation of these two pesticides was firstly evaluated, and the chromatographic condition on the chose column BGB-176 SE was optimized. An analytical method for determination and confirmation of the enantiomers in vegetables by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was then developed with the column. QuEChERS was adopted to extract and clean the residues in vegetables. The mean recovery rates of quintuplicate results in cabbage and pakchoi ranged from 71.87 to 81.45 %; the relative standard deviation was less than 8.81 %. The limits of detection of enantiomers of acephate and methamidophos were 0.008 and 0.005 mg/kg, respectively. After the application of the method to vegetables from a market, it was proved that the metabolism of acephate and methamidophos in plants should be enantioselective.