Dissipation Kinetics and Safety Evaluation of Flonicamid in Four Various Types of Crops

• Published in: Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2022-12, Vol.27 (23), p.8615
• Main Authors: Zhang, Tao, Xu, Yue, Zhou, Xuan, Liang, Xiaojie, Bai, Yang, Sun, Fengshou, Zhang, Wenwen, Wang, Ning, Pang, Xiuyu, Li, Yuekun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accuracy; Agricultural industry; Agricultural production; Analysis; Aphididae; Bees; Calibration; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; Chromatography, Liquid - methods; Consumers; Cotton; Crops; Crops, Agricultural - chemistry; dietary risk assessment; Dissipation; final residues; flonicamid; Fruits; Half-Life; Insecticides; Insecticides - analysis; Insects; Kinetics; Liquid chromatography; Mass spectrometry; Mass spectroscopy; Membrane filters; Methods; Pesticide Residues - analysis; Pesticides; QuEChERS; Residues; Risk assessment; Safety and security measures; Solvents; Tandem Mass Spectrometry - methods
• ISSN: 1420-3049; 1420-3049
• DOI: 10.3390/molecules27238615

The chemical insecticide flonicamid is widely used to control aphids on crops. Differences among crops make the universality of detection methods a particularly important consideration. The aim of this study was to establish a universal, sensitive, accurate and efficient method for the determination of flonicamid residues in peach, cucumber, cabbage and cotton. QuEChERS pretreatment was combined with ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS). A satisfactory recovery rate of 84.3-99.3% was achieved at three spiking levels, and the relative standard deviation (RSD) was 0.41-5.95%. The limit of quantification (LOQ) of flonicamid in the four matrices was 0.01 mg/kg. The residue and dissipation kinetics of flonicamid in four types of crops in various locations were determined by using the optimized method. The results showed that flonicamid had a high dissipation rate in the four different types of crops and a half-life in the different matrices and locations of 2.28-9.74 days. The terminal residue of flonicamid was lower than the maximum residue limit (MRL). The risk quotient (RQ) of flonicamid was 4.4%, which is significantly lower than 100%. This result shows that the dietary risk presented by using flonicamid at the maximum recommended dose is low and acceptable. The comprehensive long-term dietary risk assessment of flonicamid performed in this study provides a reference for the protection of consumer health and safe insecticide use.