Gas-liquid chromatographic-mass spectrometric confirmation of endosulfan and endosulfan sulfate in apples and carrots.

A gas-liquid chromatography-mass spectrometric (GLC-MS) procedure is described for the confirmation of endosulfan I, endosulfan II, and endosulfan sulfate in apples and carrots. After extraction, cleanup, and determination by electron capture gas-liquid chromatography using current AOAC methodology, residues are confirmed by GLC-MS. The chemical ionization (CI) mode is used with methane as a reagent gas. Each residue is confirmed by a scan of only 4 regions of its mass spectrum rather than the full mass range. The 4 mass regions for the 2 endosulfan isomers are 274-280, 340-346, 368-374, and 404-412 atomic mass units (amu). For endosulfan sulfate, the mass regions are 286-294, 322-330, 384-392, and 420-428 amu. Four ions and their chlorine isotopic distributions are detected for each compound by this scanning technique. This method was developed by using carrots and apples to which had been added 0.1 ppm (50% of the current legal tolerance on carrots) of each of the 3 pesticides. The gas chromatographic retention times and the mass spectra of the 4 mass regions specified for the 3 pesticides were compared to those of reference standards injected under identical GLC-MS conditions and were used as the basis for confirming identity of the 3 compounds.