Disposable Pipette Extraction (DPX) has been shown to be a rapid, efficient and reproducible method for performing solid-phase extraction (SPE) of pesticides from fruits and vegetables. DPX is a unique SPE method because the solid phase sorbent is contained inside a disposable pipette tip and is mixed with sample solutions. This mixing allows for the use of less solid phase sorbent material and results in faster extractions. Elution can be performed using small amounts of solvent, effectively providing a concentration step. Hence, solvent evaporation is not required for many applications such as pesticide analyses.
Without the need for centrifugation or solvent evaporation, DPX methods can be readily automated and the resultant eluents directly injected into a gas or liquid chromatograph. The analyst is only required to initially process the samples to be analyzed and place the sample solutions into corresponding vials. The rest of the sample preparation can be automated, including the injection of the eluent into the analytical instrument.
In this study, samples of fruits and vegetables (spiked with various pesticides) are blended with organic solvent, and the samples are then fi ltered and placed into sample vials. A GERSTEL MultiPurpose Sampler (MPS 2) is used to perform the DPX extractions and inject into the chromatographic instrument. Various types of fruits and vegetables are included in this study, and numerous pesticides are analyzed by this method including organophosphates, organochlorines, pyrethroids, and fungicides.
