The liquid-liquid extraction with low-temperature partitioning technique (LLE/LTP) was miniaturized to determine the pesticides chlorpyrifos, bifenthrin, λ-cyhalothrin, and deltamethrin in a biological matrix, by gas chromatography. The method was proposed for fetal-bovine serum samples (500 μL), by using a full factorial design (23) with one center point. The evaluated factors included the volume of water added to the sample (1000 μL), volume of extraction solvent (500 μL) and stirring time (60 s) – a cleanup step was not necessary. The method was validated for the main figures of merit. The results indicated that the LLE/LTP/GC/ECD miniaturized method was efficient in extracting pesticides from blood-serum samples (75 to 115%). It showed both selectivity and sensitiveness, with limits of quantification (LOQ) ranging from 8 at 17 μg L-1;. Once validated, the method was applied to blood-serum samples of rural workers from a city in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. In that case, the presence of chlorpyrifos was detected in two of the samples.
Keywords:
method development; pesticides; blood-serum
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