CALIFORNIA DEPT.

OF FOOD & AGRICULTURE Center for Analytical Chemistry Environmental Monitoring Section 3292 Meadowview Road Sacramento, CA 95832 (916) 262-2080 FAX (916) 262-1572

Method #: EM 12.7 Original Date: October 1, 2002 Revised Date: Page 1 of 8

HPLC Determination of Total Imidacloprid in Vegetation Scope:

This method is for the determination of total imidacloprid in vegetation. The reporting limit for this method is 0.05 ppm for oleander sprig and 1.O ppm for liquid amber sprig.
Principle: Sample is ground with acetonitrile. The extract is then cleaned up with a series of solid phase cartridges. The final extract is analyzed by reverse-phase using HPLC with a W detector. Imidacloprid at these levels can be confirmed by LC/MSiMS using triple quadropole or ion trap mass spectrometer. Safety: All general laboratory safety rules for sample preparation and analysis shall be followed. Interference: A clean-up procedure is necessary to eliminate interferences found in the material used to validate this method. Reagents, Equipment and Instrument: Reagents: 1. Imidacloprid Standard; 1.O mg/mL in methanol, obtained from CDFA Standard Repository section; CAS registry number: 105827-78-9 2. Acetonitrile, HPLC grade 3. Methanol, HPLC grade 4. Methylene Chloride, HPLC 5. Water, HPLC grade 6. Sodium Chloride, granular, anhydrous

Equipment: 1. Blender with stainless steel cup 2. Amber bottles with cap, 250mL 3. Nitrogen evaporator, N-EVA'?", Organomation Associates, Inc; Model 112 4. Vortex mixer, Thermolyne, Model 37600 5. Disposable filter, Acrodisc', Gelman, 25 mm x 0.2 pm 7. Funnel, long stem, 60', 100 mm diameter

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Reagents, Equipment andInstrument: continued

Standard Preparation: 1. Dilute the 1 mg/mL imidacloprid standard with methanol to make up a series of standard solutions. These standard solutions will be used for spiking,instrument calibration and sample calculation. 2. Keep all prepared standards in the designated refrigerator or freezer for storage when not in use. 3. The expiration date of each standard is six months from the preparation date. Sample Preservation and Storage: 1. Check the temperature of ten percent of the samplesupon amval and record it. 2. Sign the sample chain of custody and obtain an EMON number. 3. Store all sampleswaiting for extraction in the walk-in freezer. 4. Store all samples waiting for analysis in a refrigerator. Analysis: Sample Extraction: 1, Bring sample to room temperature if frozen. 2. Cut sample into small pieces (including stem and twigs asapplicable). 3 . Weigh-out 50.0 grams of sample and put in stainless steel blender cup. 4. Add 200 mL acetonitrile. 5. Blend at eighty setting on variable transformer dial for two minutes. 6 . Filter the extract through sharkskin filter paper into 250 mL bottles with 10 grams of sodium chloride. 7. Shake vigorously for 2 minutes and let stand30 to 40 minutes.
Sample clean upfor Oleander Sprig a) Take 10 mL aliquot of extract and concentrate to less than 0.1 mL onthe N-EVAPTM. b) Suspend the extract in 2 to 3 mL of methanol. c) Condition a CISBond-Elute cartridge by rinsing with 5.0 mL of methanol on a vacuum manifold. d) Load the extractsuspension on the cartridge andcollect the eluant in a test tube. e) Rinse thetest tubes 2 times with 3 mL methanol. Collect each of thecartridge rinses in the same test tube.

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Analysis: continued
f) Concentrate the eluant to less than 0.1 mL on the N-EVAPTM.

g) Suspend the extractin 2 mL of 1% methanol in methylene chloride. h) Condition aN H 2 Bond-Elute cartridge by rinsing with 5 mL of 1% methanol in methylene chloride on a vacuum manifold. i) Load the extract suspension on the cartridge and collect the eluant in a test tube. j) Rinse the test tubes 2 times with 3 mL 1% methanol in methylene chloride. Collect each of the cartridge rinses in the same test tube.
Sample clean up for Liquid Amber Sprig a) Take 1 mL aliquot of extract and concentrate to less than 0.1 mL on the N-EVAPTM. b) Suspend the extract in 2 to 3 mL of methanol. c) Condition a Cl8 Bond-Elute cartridgewith 5.0 mL of methanolon a vacuum manifold. d) Load the extract suspensionon the cartridgeand collect the eluant in a testtube. e) Rinse the test tubes 2 times with 3 mL methanol. Collect each of the cartridgerinses in the same test tube. f) Concentrate the eluant to less than 0.1 mL on the N-EVAPm. g) Suspend the extract in 2 mL of 10% methanol in methylene chloride. h) Condition aN H z Bond-Elute cartridgeby rinsing with 5 mL of 10% methanol in methylene chloride on a vacuum manifold. i) Load the extract suspensionon the cartridge and collect the eluant in a test tube. j) Rinse the test tubes2 times with 3 mL 1% methanol in methylene chloride. Collect each of the cartridge rinses in the same test tube. 8) Concentrate the extractto less than 0.1 mL and bring to 1.O mL of methanol. 9) Filter the extract through 0.2 pm AcrodiscO into an auto sampler vial.

Preparation of blanks and spikes Blank: Weigh out 50 g of the homogeneous background sample into a blender.Follow the sample extraction procedure outlined above.

Spike: Weigh out 50 gof the homogeneous background sample into a blender. Spike a known amount of imidacloprid into the sample. Mix well and let stand forat least one minute, them follow the sample extraction procedure outlined above.
Instrument Conditions Instrument: HPLC: Column: UV 270 Detector: Mobile phase: Isocratic Flow: Injection volume: Retention Time: Imidacloprid

Hewlett-Packard 1050, controlled by ChemStation ODS 5p x 4.6 cm mm 25 x qm (70 % Water - 30 % Acetonitrile) 1.O mLimin. 20 pL minutes 5.5

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Instrument calibration: Load the method and run a set of calibration standards (0.1ng/pL, 0.25 ng/pL, 0.5 ngipL, and 1.O ng/pL) to check system linearity. Method Performance: Quality Control: 1. A 4-point calibration curve of 0.1, 0.25, 0.5 and 1.0 qg/pL is obtained at the beginning and the end of each sample set. The chemstation software is used to calculate sample result in ppm. 2. Each sample shall be injected two times to insure reliability of the analysis. If the signal of a sample is greater than that of the highest standard in the calibration curve, dilute the sample. Re-inject the diluted sample two more times together with standards. 3. Sample storage:All field samples shall bekept frozen at -10 "C. 4. Sample extracts: All extracts shall be kept refrigerated at 5 "C until analyzed. 5. Refrigerator and freezer temperature shall be monitored and recorded daily. 6. For each set of samples, aminimum of one matrix blank and one matrix spike shall be included. Each set of samples shallnot contain more than twelve samples. 7. To avoid cross-contamination, glassware shall be washed following Environmental Monitoring standard operation procedure (SOP 502.6). 8. At least ten percent of the sampleresults shall be manuallycalculated to check instrument results. Hand calculated results are based on a single calibration point using the following equation:
(sample peak ht.)(std. conc., pg/mL)(std. vol. inj., vL)(sample final vol., m L . )

PPm =
(Std. peak ht.)(sample vol. injected, pL)(sample wt., g)

Recovery Data: The method was validated by preparing three sets of spiked samples. Originally, each set contained a blank and three levels of spikes at 1.0 ppm, 10 ppm and 100 ppm. Later, two more levels of spike wereadded for oleander sprig at 0.1 ppm and 0.5 ppm. The background plant materials were specified by the Department of Pesticide Regulation and samples collected from the Meadowview complex. Sets were processed through the entire analytical method on separate days. Calculated recoveries for imidacloprid are tabulated in Appendix I. Method Detection Limit (MDL): The MDLrefers to the minimum concentration of imidacloprid that can be detected in the material with 99% confidence. The MDL was computed based on the following procedure: a) Prepare 7 replicates of imidacloprid at 0.1 ppm for each matrix. b) Process each sample through the entire method along with a blank. c) Calculate thepercent recovery for each sample. d) Calculate the standard deviation (S) for thepercent recovery. c) Compute theMDL as follows:

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Method Performance: continued

MDL=txS where; t is the Student't' value for the 99% confidence level with n-1 degrees of freedom (n-1, 1 - C J = 0.99) where n represents the number ofreplicates. For n=7, t=3.143, S denotes the standard deviation obtained from replicate analyses. The results for the standard deviations and MDL calculations are tabulated in Appendix II.
Reporting Limit (E): The RL refers to level above which quantitative resultsare reported. The MDL is used as a guide to determine the R L . In this method, the RL is set at 5 times or less the MDL. The imidacloprid F U is 0.05 ppm in oleander springand 1.0 ppm in liquid amber.

Calculations: Samples are calculated using a multilevel calibration curve of response versus concentration. The multilevel calibration curve is used to confirm linearity overthe calibration range.The method of linear fit ignoring the origin is selected to create the curve. Each calibration level corresponds to a calibration standardof known concentration. Calibration standards should be prepared so that the imidacloprid concentration varies across the range of concentrations expected in the samples. The instrument calculate results (ICR) are obtained using the following equation:

(sample peak. ht.)(RF., pg/mL) (std. vol. injected, pL) (FV., mL) ICR (pprn) = (sample vol. injected, pL) (sample wt., g) and
C[ ( std. conc.,, pg/mL) / (std. peak ht.")]

RF @g/mL) =
n n = number of standards For oleander, the sample weight is 2.5 grams and the final volumeis 1 mL (if no dilution is made). Therefore, a multiplier factor of 0.4 mL/g is put on the sequence table to account for final volume and sample weight on the ICR equation. For liquid amber, the sample weight is 0.25 grams and the final volume is 1 mL (if no dilution is made). Therefore, a multiplier factor of 4.0 mL/g is put on the sequence table. If sample has to be diluted, thesequence table dilution column needs to be entered with the proper dilution factor.

Acceptance Criteria: 1. The standard curvesat the beginning and the end of each sample set should not have an average percent change greater than 15%. The % change in response is calculated as follows:

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Acceptance Criteria: continued

2. The samples are calculated based on the calibration curve before the samples are analyzed using the instrument chemstation software. If the results between the two duplicate injections differ by less than 10% either result can be reported. A change greater than 10 % with no known reason requires a third injection to check results agreement. More work shall be done if needed to obtain reproducible results.
Discussion: David Hirano developed this method. David did the method MDL and validation for the 1 ppm, 10 ppm, 100 ppm spike levels. Jorge L Hernandez did the validation 0.1 ppm and 0.5 ppm spikes levels and wrote the method. It is our experience that imidacloprid is heat sensitive. To achieve acceptable recoveries, prolonged heating must be avoided and the recommended temperature must be followed during evaporation to prevent low recoveries. The imidacloprid calibration curve is linear in theselected range and any of the calibration points may beused for manual calculation. However, it is recommended for this calculation to use a standard with a peak height close to the peak height of the calculated sample. References: 1. Duc Tran., Determination of o f Hexazinone in Plant Material by HPLC.Center for Analytival Chemist, Enviromental Monitoring Method# 11.3 2. Ting, K.C., High Performance Liquid Chromatographic Method f o r Determination of Six N-Methylcarbamates in Vegetables and Fruits, Bull. Environmental Contamination & Toxicology, 1984, 33, 538-547 3. Keith, Lawrence H., etc., Principals ofEnvironmenta1 Analysis, Anal.Chem., 1983,55,2210-2218

WRITTEN BY: David Hirano

and

Jorge L. Hernandez
!'

TITLE: Agricultural Chemist II

Agricultural Chemist 1 1 0

RE/YIEWED BY: Catherine Cooper TITLE: Laboratory SupervGor Environmental Monitoring

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Appendix I: Method Validation Results andRecoveries

I I

Spike Level (ppm) 0.1 99.0

I
I

0.5 86.2
1

10 72.1 72.6 100

Imidaclol i d Total Oleander Sprig Liquid Amber Sprig (ppm) Results % Results (ppm) % 0.099 0.092 92.0 0.088 88.0 0.471 94.1 0.431 0.441 88.1 0.756 75.6 0.901 90.1 0.708 70.8 1.050 l05.0 0.803 80.3 1.015 101.5 7.207 9.401 7.262 7.894 78.9 9.212 92.1 77.5 7.752 82.831 82.8 86.8 86.795 78.179 78.2 82.6 82.613 70.398 70.4 88.651 88.7

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Appendix 11: MDL Determination

Imida ioprid Liquid Amber Sprig ppm % ND 0.6120 61.2 0.6400 64.0 0.4680 46.8 0.5700 57.0 0.5980 59.8 0.6680 66.8 0.6930 0.0742 7.42 0.233 1.o

Blank Spike 1 Spike 2 Spike 3 Spike 4 Spike 5 Spike 6 Spike 7 STDEV MDL
RL

ND 0.0808 0.0795 0.0896 0.0763 0.0798 0.0743 0.0699 0.0062 0.0193 0.05

80.8 79.5 89.6 76.3 79.8 74.3 69.9 69.3 6.16