Gıda Kimyası Kongresi, Antalya, Turkey, 3 - 06 March 2022, pp.10
Recently, the use of high polar chemicals such as plant growth regulators and some fertilizers for the acceleration of fruit ripening and improvement of the fruit quality is a questionable issue during agricultural practices.1 Since these compounds may cause adverse effects on human health, their presence in fruits should be monitored regularly using a confidential detection method.2 In this study, a rapid and reliable chromatographic method was validated for the determination of two high polar chemicals (phosphonic acid and ethephon) in fresh fruits by using LC-MS/MS. With this test method, the detection time for these compounds was very short (4.1 min. for phosphonic acid and 4.3 min. for ethephon) and no interference was observed. Results showed good linearity (R2 > 0.99) and average recovery rates were between 103.6 and 102.7%; 101.8 and 101.9% for 10 and 50 μg kg-1 concentrations of ethephon and phosphonic acid, respectively. The RSD values of repeatability and reproducibility were in the range of 1.11-3.64% for ethephon and 0.70-2.40% for phosphonic acid; 0.94-3.50% for ethephon and 5.13-1.21% for phosphonic acid, separately. LOQ values were 7.82 and 6.64 μg kg−1 for ethephon and phosphonic acid. All values were under the lowest Maximum Residue Limits of the chemicals. The validation data of both compounds obtained in LC-MS/MS analysis was quite reliable and were in line with the SANTE/12682/2019 Guideline. verify the analytical method, the chemical residue levels of fresh fruits were investigated in more than 1000 real fruit samples. This chromatographic method was patented with the number of 2020/22810. This study was funded with as a research project (grant number ULUTEK STB065816) by Perla Fruit Company.