Development of a multiresidue method for the determination of multiclass pesticides in soil using GC.

The principal objective of the present study was to develop a multiresidue analytical method for 62 pesticides in a soil matrix. Soil samples were fortified with known quantities of pesticides at two different concentration levels (0.1 and 0.01 microg/g) and the analytes were extracted via a liquid-solid extraction method. The pesticides were separated on an HP5 capillary column and were detected by gas chromatography coupled to an electron capture detector (GC-ECD). The method was validated, considering its good linearities (r(2) = 0.978-0.999), specificity and recovery characteristics. Recoveries were found between 70.3 and 113.4% for all pesticides except edifenphos (67.5%) and dichlobenil (69.5%) spiked at a 0.1 microg/mL concentration level and 74.5-117% except ethalfluralin (63.3%) and dichlobenil (51.9%) spiked at a concentration of 0.01 microg/mL. The developed method could be utilized as a simple and cost-effective method for the routine analysis of 62 pesticides in soil samples.