Analysis of the residues of 20 organochlorine pesticides in Herba epimedii, a Chinese herbal medicine, by solid-phase extraction with gas chromatography/negative chemical ionization-mass spectrometry.

A multiresidue analytical method has been developed to simultaneously determine the residues of 20 organochlorine pesticides in Herba epimedii, a traditional Chinese medicine. The 20 pesticides are included in the list of regulated substances by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department in Hong Kong. The method consists of solid-phase extraction for cleanup of samples and GC coupled on-line with negative chemical ion-MS to analyze the target pesticides. The chromatographic separation of the compounds was carried out on a DB-1701 column by using an optimal temperature program, and the quantitative analysis was conducted by selected ion monitoring. The LOD and LOQ values fell in the range of 0.0555-5.8821 and 0.1241-17.9333 ng/g, respectively. The average recoveries were between 75.4 and 90.7% (n = 5) for the 20 organochlorine pesticides. The developed method proved to be reliable and accurate, and permits rapid determination of the 20 organochlorine pesticides in one run.