Determination of strobilurin fungicide residues in fruits and vegetables by micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography with sweeping.

A new assay of micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography with sweeping was developed to determine azoxystrobin, kresoxim-methyl and pyraclostrobin in fruits and vegetables. The key factors affecting resolution and peak height were studied and the optimum conditions were obtained for separation and enrichment. The running buffer consisted of 40 mM borate, 25 mM sodium dodecyl sulfate and 15% acetonitrile, and its pH was adjusted to 8.4. The sample was injected for 677 nL and the separation voltage was 25 kV. Under the optimum conditions, the enrichment factors of azoxystrobin, kresoxim-methyl and pyraclostrobin were 861, 550 and 403; the linear dynamic ranges were all 0.01-5.0 mg/L; the limits of detection were 0.002, 0.001 and 0.002 mg/kg; the recoveries of spiked samples were 85.1-98.5%, 87.5-97.0% and 89.1-99.1%, respectively. The assay can meet the requirement of maximum residue limits for these three strobilurin fungicides, and has been applied for determining their residues in fruits and vegetables.