The analysis of common metabolites of organophosphorus pesticides in urine by gas chromatography mass spectrometry

Most organophosphorus pesticides may be metabolized to yield some common phosphates in human or in animals, and these metabolites may be used as the exposure biomarkers to pesticides. In this study, we developed the extraction method of four phosphate metabolites from the spiked human urine in high recovery by the solid phase extraction with a reverse-phase cartridge (cyclohexyl silica) followed by the elution with methanol. The extracted urinary metabolites were derivatized with hexamethyldisilazane/trimethyl-chlorosilane/pyridine (2:1:10, v/v/v) and identified by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Calibration curve obtained from each metabolite standard using by GC/MS/SIM has shown good linearity and detection limits of metabolites were the range of 0.05-0.1 mu g/ml in urine. Phenthoate, one of the organophosphorus pesticides, was orally administrated to rats. Four metabolites were detected in the rat urine. The results of this study may be applied to development of exposure biomarkers for monitoring of environmental pollutants.