Simultaneous determination and risk assessment of metalaxyl and azoxystrobin in potato by liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry

A liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry method was developed and validated to simultaneously determine metalaxyl and azoxystrobin in soil, potato, and potato foliage samples. The samples were extracted by 20 mL of acetonitrile and purified with dispersive solid-phase extraction using octadecyl silane as sorbent. The method showed good linearity (determination coefficients ≥ 0.9926) for metalaxyl (2.5–500 ng/mL) and azoxystrobin (5–1000 ng/mL). The limits of detection and quantification for both fungicides were 1.5–20 μg/kg. The average recoveries in soil, potato, and potato foliage were 83.07–92.87% for metalaxyl and 82.71–98.53% for azoxystrobin. The intra- and inter-day relative standard deviations were all less than 9%. The method was successfully applied on the residual analysis of metalaxyl and azoxystrobin in field trial samples. The results showed that the concentrations of metalaxyl and azoxystrobin in potato samples collected from Guizhou and Hunan were below 50 and 100 μg/kg (maximum residue limit set by China), respectively, at 5 days after the last application. When following the recommended application manual, metalaxyl and azoxystrobin do not present health concerns to the population because the risk quotients are far below 100%. All the above data could help and promote the safe and proper use of metalaxyl and azoxystrobin in potato.