Abstract
Contain between 1 and 3 bullet points highlighting the customization rather than the steps of the procedure. An analytical methodology was adjusted and validated for the analysis of 15 selected pesticides currently employed in extensive agriculture. The main application of this methodology is studying the pesticides degradation behavior using biobeds as a friendly environmental tool for the treatment of wastewaters generated in fields. The scope of the method was selected based on the most used pesticides in soybean crops in Uruguay. The novelty of this work is the inclusion of neutral and acidic herbicides such as 2,4-D, clethodim, dicamba, together with fungicides and insecticides which are usually included in Multi Residue Methods. An acetonitrile extraction methodology without a clean-up step yielded acceptable results for all the analytes. The instrumental analysis was performed using HPLC-MS/MS. The selected methodology was validated according to the SANTE guidelines. The recoveries were between 65 and 130% with RSD < 20%. The instrumental LOQs were fixed at 1 µg/L for all the compounds except for clethodim, and the method LOQs were 1 mg/kg in biomixture dry basis. These LOQs values are acceptable for biodegradation studies in biobeds. A multiresidue methodology was: • Validated for 15 pesticides in biomixture. • Acidic herbicides were included in the scope. • The method was employed for the environmental monitoring of pesticide degradation in biobeds.