The use of pesticides for protection of various plants has increased yearly harvest and increased life quality. Larger quantities of food have to be provided as the population of the world is increasing daily. Insecticides, in my case neonicotinoids, protect the plants from various pests, but the problem is that they also harm beneficial insects, for example, bees. Neonicotinoids are systemic pesticides, which means they are transferred to all parts of the plant, even in the pollen which bees use as food. The residues of these pesticides have been found in the bees, and that is why they contribute to the numerous colony collapse disorders. The external use of three neonicotinoid pesticides: imidacloprid, clothianidin, and thiamethoxam were forbidden in 2018 because of that, and in 2020, the use of thiacloprid was also forbidden.
The first step in the determination of neonicotinoids is sample preparation, and the most used methods are QuEChERS and SPE. Nowadays, more people are aware of environmental protection, so we tend to choose a more environmentally friendly method, which is definitely QuEChERS. The most used technique for analysis is LC-MS/MS, which is the most selective and sensitive technique, but it requires more demanding instrumentation and more frequent calibration of the instrument.
The purpose of my work was to review the different extractions and analytical methods for the determination of neonicotinoid pesticides, the comparison of these methods and the selection of the method that gives the best results. The calibration curves were linear for analytical method HPLC-DAD in the range of concentration from 2 to 30 mg/L. This method is supposed to give more repeatable results than LC-MS/MS.
From the literature I found out that neonicotinoid pesticides were present in pollen, nectar, honey, and in bees themselves. Their concentration was mostly low, and it did not exceed the MRL level. However, it differed according to the continent or the country in which the samples have been taken. In my opinion QuEChERS is better for extraction because it more efficiently removes the matrix of the sample and it is cheaper. In my opinion, LC-MS/MS is better for the analysis because in comparison with the HPLC with UV/VIS or DAD detector, it measures only the response of analytes while the other two measure the response of all the components which absorb the light at the same wavelength.
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