Simultaneous Determination of Ternary Mixture of Carboxin, Chlorpyrifos, and Tebuconazole Residues in Cabbage Samples Using Three Spectrophotometric Methods

Three simple precise and accurate spectrophotometric methods are developed for simultaneous determination of ternary mixtures of carboxin, chlorpyrifos, and tebuconazole residues in cabbage grown in the experimental field. The first method is a double divisor-ratio spectra derivative that relies on the derivative of ratio spectra and attained through dividing the absorption spectra of the ternary mixture by the sum of standard spectrum of a mixture of two from three components, using methanol as a solvent and measuring CAR at 242 nm, CHL at 236 nm, 276 nm, and 300 nm, and TEB at 226 nm. The second method is a successive derivative of ratio spectra which determined CAR at 256 nm and 258 nm, CHL at 290 nm and 292 nm, and TEB at 226 nm and 228 nm. The third method is a mean centering of ratio spectra where CAR, CHL, and TEB were measured at 306 nm, 280 nm, and 240 nm, respectively. These procedures do not involve any previous separation. The extraction of analytes was carried out by using acetonitrile, and the procedure of purification was fulfilled by dispersive solid-phase extraction with a primary-secondary amine (PSA). The proposed methods showed excellent linearity range for three spectrophotometric methods over the concentration ranges of 1–30 μg/mL, 1–50 μg/mL, and 1–45 μg/mL for carboxin, chlorpyrifos, and tebuconazole, respectively. The analytical characteristics such as detection limit, determination limit, relative standard deviation, and accuracy of the three methods were performed. The limits of detection were in the range of 0.153–0.260 μg/mL for carboxin, 0.137–0.272 μg/mL for chlorpyrifos, and 0.109–0.205 μg/mL for tebuconazole with limits of quantification lower than 0.790, 0.824, and 0.621 μg/mL for CAR, CHL, and TEB, respectively. The recoveries ranged from 87.02% to 94.53% for carboxin, 92.32% to 108.53% for chlorpyrifos, and 87.19% to 98.00% for tebuconazole with relative standard deviations less than 5.91%, 5.99%, and 5.53% in all instances for carboxin, chlorpyrifos, and tebuconazole, respectively. The results obtained from the proposed methods were compared statistically by using one-way ANOVA, and the results revealed that there were no significant differences between three different spectrophotometric methods. The suggested methods can be applied with great success to the simultaneous estimation of carboxin, chlorpyrifos, and tebuconazole residues in cabbage samples.