Application of supercritical fluid extraction in multi-residue pesticide analysis of plant matrices

Sample preparation based on selective super-critical fluid extraction (SFE) prior to gas chromatographic (GC) analysis of several groups of pesticides (organophosphates, organochlorines, pyrethroides and others) in cereals, cereal products, vegetables and fruits has been used. Electron capture detector (ECD) and nitrogen phosphorus detector (NPD) for parallel detection of investigated compounds were used. The obtained results showed satisfactory recoveries for most of compounds (more than 70%) and sufficient selectivity of extraction, namely for GC-NPD amenable compounds. The optimised procedure was successfully compared with conventional liquid extraction followed by GPC clean up in the frame of inter-laboratory study.