Steam distillation and gas-liquid chromatographic determination of triallate and diallate in milk and plant tissue.

A procedure based on steam distillation is described for the determination of residues of the thiocarbamate herbicides diallate and triallate. The herbicides are steam-distilled directly from aqueous suspensions of milk and plant samples and trapped in hexane. After column cleanup on either activated Florisil or silica cartridges, samples are quantitated by gas-liquid chromatography. Recoveries of diallate and triallate from milk, lettuce, peas, corn, canarygrass seed and straw, and flax straw ranged from 77 to 96%.