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A method is proposed for the simultaneous determination of nine benzimidazole and neonicotinoid pesticides present in honey by employing automatic solid-phase extraction with high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). A honey sample was dissolved in a phosphate buffer (pH=7.8) followed by ultrasonic extraction. The extracts were then purified through solid-phase extraction (SPE) with hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB) cartridges. Finally, nitrogen was blown on the obtained mixture, and the mixture was subsequently filtered for conducting HPLC-MS/MS analysis. Nine compounds were detected under the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode, and the corresponding quantification was performed by employing the method of internal standards. The nine detected pesticides demonstrated good linearity in the range of 0.002-0.05 mg/L, with the correlation coefficient values (r2) being higher than 0.99. The limits of detection (LODs) (S/N=3) and limits of quantification (LOQs) (S/N=10) were found to be in the ranges of 0.1-1.0 μg/kg and 0.3-2.0 μg/kg, respectively. Furthermore, the results indicated that the recoveries of the nine detected pesticides range from 78.2%-101.2% at three spiked levels of 5.0, 10.0, and 20.0 μg/kg with a relative standard deviation (RSD) range of 1.3%-14.3% (n=6). Hence, the proposed method is rapid and can be employed for accurate determination of pesticide residues in large quantities of honey samples.

A method was established for the determination of amitraz (AMZ), and its metabolites semiamitraz (DMPF), 2,4-dimethylformamidine (DMF) and 2,4-dimethylaniline (DMA) in vegetables and fruits by using high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). The samples were diluted with 0.1 mol/L sodium hydroxide and extracted withn-hexane-isopropanol (2:1, v/v). The separation was performed on a Phenomenex Kinetex C18 column (100 mm×4.6 mm, 2.6 μm) with gradient elution using 0.1% (v/v) formic acid aqueous solution-methanol as the mobile phase. The analysis of amitraz and its metabolites were detected under electrospray positive ionization mode. The limits of quantification (LOQs) were between 0.01 and 0.4 μg/kg. The good linearities (r>0.99) were achieved for the target compounds in the range of 1.0-200.0 μg/L. The recoveries at three spiked levels (0.5, 5.0 and 20 μg/kg) in blank matrix were in the range of 62.5%-105.0% with the relative standard deviations between 7.5% and 17.6%. The method is convenient, rapid, accurate, efficient, sensitive and practical. It is suitable for the determination and confirmation of amitraz and its metabolites in vegetables and fruits, and can meet the demands of domestic and foreign regulations.