Determination of Residues of Eight Synthetic Pyrethroids in Tobacco by Capillary Gas Chromatography

A method was developed for the simultaneous determination of the residues of the following eight synthetic pyrethroids and their isomers in tobacco: tetramethrin, permethrin, cyfluthrin, cypermethrin, alfamethrin, flucythrinate, fluvalinate and deltamethrin. The pesticides were extracted from ground tobacco by means of acetone:water 9:1 for 5 hours. The extract was diluted with water and partitioned into n-hexane. The organic phase was concentrated to about 1 ml and then purified by a Florisil-SPE column. The gas-chromatographic analyses were run with a gas-chromatograph Carlo Erba Series Mega HRGC 5300 equipped with a capillary column (stationary phase OV-1 - 0.10-0.15 µm film thickness, 25 m long) and a ⁶³Ni electron-capture detector. Two different injection ports were used: split-splitless and cold split-splitless, working both with isothermal and programmed temperatures. Both the limit of detection and the limit of determination were estimated for each compound. Recoveries from fortified samples at level of 1 µgKg^-1 are reported.