Rapid determination of prometryn in aquatic products by QuEChERS combined with gas chromatography mass spectrometry

A method was developed for the determination of prometryn in aquatic products by quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged and safe (QuEChERS) extraction coupled with gas chromatography mass spectrometry. The samples were extracted by acetonitrile-dichloromethane mixture (V:V=8:2) and purified by neutral alumina, zirconium dioxide, PSA and GCB, quantified with internal standard. Good linearity was obtained in the range of 5.00−200 µg·L⁻¹ with the correlation coeficient of 0.9999. The average recoveries were 85.8%−111.8% in Ctenopharyngodon idellus, Siniperca chuatsi, Penaeus chinensis, Holothuria sp. and Meretrix meretrix at four spiked levels of 10, 20, 40 and 200 µg·kg⁻¹ with RSD_S of 1.2%−8.8%, which meets the quality control specifications required in the national standard (GB/T 27404−2008 Criterion on Quality Control of Laboratories-Chemical Testing of Food). The limits of detection (S/N≥3) and quantification (S/N≥10) were 5.0 and 10.0 µg·kg⁻¹, respectively. The method is suitable for the rapid determination of the prometryn residues in aquatic products owing to its advantages of simplicity, sensitivity, accuracy and better purification.