Residues analysis of post-harvest imidazole fungicides in citrus fruit by HPLC and GLC.

The determination of imazalil and prochloraz fungicide residues has been carried out by HPLC with an UV detector at 204 nm and by GLC with an electron capture detector (ECD). In both cases fungicide residues were extracted with hexane/acetone (90:10, v/v) after pH adjustment and purified by a liquid-liquid partitioning process. When HPLC was used for prochloraz and imazalil analysis, it was necessary to eliminate the interfering substances with a further clean-up process. This was also required when samples with low residue levels were analyzed by GLC. Recovery was always higher than 70%. The detection limit was 0.04 ppm for the HPLC method and 0.02 for the GLC method. Imazalil and prochloraz residues in "Washington Navel" oranges and "Hernandina" clementine fruits, dipped in a 1000 ppm fungicide solution, are reported.