Estudo do efeito matriz na determinação de agrotóxicos em diferentes tipos de arroz pelo método QuEChERS modificado e LC-MS/MS

Abstract

Rice is socially and economically important because it is the main component of the diet of more than half of the world s population. Brazil is one of the main rice producers in the world and Rio Grande do Sul state yields about 60% of the national production. This grain has been recently recognized by its functional characteristics; therefore, the demand for special cultivars, such as cateto rice, black rice and red rice, has increased lately, due to their complex nutritional composition and higher value, even though the number of consumers is still low. The quality of these grains must be monitored to guarantee food safety. A fundamental parameter of the quality is the investigation of pesticide residue. This study has developed and validated a method for pesticide multiresidue determination in different types of rice by Liquid Chromatography coupled with tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) employing the acetate QuEChERS method in sample preparation. In the cleanup step, the type and the quantity of sorbent were optimized. Besides the sorbents which are frequently used, like PSA and C18, others that had never been tested so far, such as chitosan and diatomaceous earth, were also evaluated. After the optimization, 150 mg of C18 as sorbent was chosen. The efficiency and the reliability of the method were evaluated according to some parameters, such as linearity, limits of detection and quantification, accuracy and precision (repeatability and intermediate precision), matrix effect and robustness. Analytical curves showed adequate linearity (r2 ≥ 0.99) for all analytes. Recovery ranges were 54-112; 50-112; 48-116 and 51-122% for red, whole, cateto and white rice, respectively, with RSD lower than 20%. The limits of quantification ranged from 5 to 25 μg kg-1. The study of the matrix effect has shown low values (< 20%) for most of analytes. Supression was the predominant effect for 80% of the analytes. This effect was compensated by matrix-matched calibration. The method analytes has shown the robustness of the different types of rice with accuracy and precision. Therefore, the proposed method can be efficiently applied to determine pesticides in different types of rice because all validation parameters comply with the limits recommended for the validation of chromatographic methods.