Development and Validation of an Analytical Method for Tridemorph Determination in Tea Samples by Liquid Chromatograph-Electrospray Ionization-Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Tridemorph is a systemic morpholine fungicide for crops. The objective of this study was to develop reliable and sensitive analytical method for determination of tridemorph residues in tea samples for ensuring the food safety. Tridemorph residues in samples were extracted with acetonitrile after hydration, partitioned with saline water, and then purified using an aminopropyl (NH2) SPE cartridge. The purified samples were detected and quantified using LC-ESI-MS/MS. The linear detection limits for tridemorph ranged from 0.02 to 1.0 mg L �1 with a correlation coefficient of 0.9999. The method was validated using tea samples spiked with tridemorph at different con- centration levels (0.02 and 0.05 µ gm L �1 ). The average recovery ranged between 75.0 and 84.7% with relative standard deviations less than 10%. The LOD and LOQ were 0.01 and 0.02 mg L �1 , respectively. The developed method was applied successfully to the identification of tridemorph in real tea samples obtained from different sources, and tride- morph was not detected in any of the samples. The results show that the developed analytical method is accurate and suitable for tridemorph determination in tea samples.