Multiresidue Pesticide Analysis of Botanical Dietary Supplements Using Salt-out Acetonitrile Extraction, Solid-Phase Extraction Cleanup Column, and Gas Chromatography–Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry

Dietary supplements form an increasing part of the American diet, yet broadly applicable multiresidue pesticide methods have not been evaluated for many of these supplements. A method for the analysis of 310 pesticides, isomers, and pesticide metabolites in dried botanical dietary supplements has been developed and validated. Sample preparation involved acetonitrile:water added to the botanical along with anhydrous magnesium sulfate and sodium chloride for extraction, followed by cleanup with solid-phase extraction using a tandem cartridge consisting of graphitized carbon black (GCB) and primary–secondary amine sorbent (PSA). Pesticides were measured by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Accuracy and precision were evaluated through fortifications of 24 botanicals at 10, 25, 100, and 500 μg/kg. Mean pesticide recoveries and relative standard deviations (RSDs) for all botanicals were 97%, 91%, 90%, and 90% and 15%, 10%, 8%, and 6% at 10, 25, 100, and 500 μg/kg, respectively. The method was applied to 21 incurred botanicals. Quinoxyfen was measured in hops (100–620 μg/kg). Tetraconazole (48 μg/kg), tetramethrin (15 μg/kg), methamidophos (50 μg/kg), and chlorpyrifos (93 μg/kg) were measured in licorice, mallow, tea, and tribulus, respectively. Quintozene, its metabolites and contaminants (pentachloroaniline, pentachlorobenzene, pentachloroanisole, and pentachlorothioanisole and hexachlorobenzene and tecnazene, respectively), with hexachlorocyclohexanes and DDT were identified in ginseng sources along with azoxystrobin, diazinon, and dimethomorph between 0.7 and 2800 μg/kg. Validation with these botanicals demonstrated the extent of this method’s applicability for screening 310 pesticides in a wide array of botanical dietary supplements.