A rapid and simple method for the determination of ethephon residue in agricultural products by GC with headspace sampling.

Ethephon quickly decomposes to ethylene under alkaline and high temperature conditions. In this research, we developed a rapid and simple method suitable for routine analysis of ethephon residues in agricultural products using gas chromatography (GC) equipped with a flame ionization detector (FID). This method was based upon the headspace sampling and determined the ethylene formed. Average recoveries from apples, tomatoes, grapes, kiwifruits and sugarcane, which were spiked with 1-3 ppm ethephon, were in the range of 88.3-98.6% and the coefficient of variation were ranged of 2.2-7.5%. The detection limit was 0.1 ppm.