Determination and Extraction of Acetamiprid Residues in Fruits and Vegetables

Vegetables (chilies, tomato, cauliflower and cucumber) and fruits (mango and apple) samples were spiked with known quantity (0.50 mg kg-1) of acetamiprid reference standard for testing the retrieval percentage of acetamiprid residue in those vegetables and fruits. The efficiency of different extracting (ethyl acetate and dichloromethane + acetone 8:2) and eluting (ethyl acetate and dichloromethane + acetone 8:2) solvents and adsorbents (activated charcoal and florisil) for clean up purpose was calculated using HPLC. Amongst the extracting solvents ethyl-acetate was observed an effective extracting solvent alone which produced maximum 90-96%  recovery for acetamiprid residues while among the eluting solvents a combination of dichloromethane and acetone ( ratio 8:2) produced superior recoveries i.e. 87-95%. Similarly, between the adsorbents used for clean up purpose activated charcoal and florisil in tandem (first from charcoal and then through florisil) yielded recoveries 82-90 % whereas adsorbents used alone in form of activated florisil and charcoal recovered only 70 to 78 % and 71 to 73% acetamiprid residues, respectively in all vegetables and fruits.