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Evaluation of various clean-up sorbents in kale followed by LC-MS/MS analysis of pesticides

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Abstract

Chlorophyll-rich samples, such as kale, interfere with the analysis of residual pesticides and adversely affect the integrity of tandem mass spectrometers. Dispersed solid-phase (d-SPE) extraction using graphitized carbon black effectively removes pigments from kale extracts; however, it also reduces the recoveries of 30 pesticides. To overcome this, alternative sorbents, including ENVI-Carb, ChloroFiltr, and Z-Sep+, were evaluated in this study. A sorbent combination based on 50 mg of Z-Sep+ was most advantageous (21/30), good precision (< 15%), excellent pigment removal capacity, and low matrix effect. The limit of quantification (0.0001–0.0040 mg/kg) was lower than the Korean maximum residue limits levels. The proposed method was validated according to international guidelines and applied to real kale samples. The results demonstrated that d-SPE using Z-Sep+ provides an effective strategy for ensuring mass spectrometry system integrity and improving the analytical accuracy in chlorophyll-rich samples.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Main Research Program (E0187200-03) of the Korea Food Research Institute, funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT. The authors thank S. Y. Oh (Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology) for supporting the graphic design.

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Correspondence to Minseon Koo or Tae Gyu Nam.

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Jung, Y.S., Song, NE., Choi, J.Y. et al. Evaluation of various clean-up sorbents in kale followed by LC-MS/MS analysis of pesticides. Food Sci Biotechnol 31, 787–796 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10068-022-01101-3

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