Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 July 2014
Introduction. Chlordecone (CLD), an organochlorine formerly used to controlthe banana black weevil, is strongly adsorbed on soils, particularly on andosols. Asimplified analytical procedure for the quantitative determination of chlordecone residuesin water and micro-samples of soil and plants was compared with a standard method.Materials and methods. The procedure combines a simplified samplingprotocol and a 10-min solid phase microextraction (SPME), followed by gas chromatographicseparation (GC) and mass spectrometric (MS and MS/MS) identification. Quantitation of CLDused a standard addition method with zero extrapolation. First, seventy samples wereanalysed using the proposed method and the standard method based on hot solventextraction. Second, fifteen soil samples were analysed with two SPME methods followed byGC-MS but using CLD labelled with C13 as an internal standard or the proposed method.Results and discussion. The detection (LOD) and quantitation (LOQ) limitsof our SPME extraction procedure were determined for GC-MS and GC-MS/MS with water, plant(pineapple roots) and soil samples: in water for MS/MS, LODMS/MS-water = 0.5 ng×L–1,LOQMS/MS-water = 2.0 ng×L–1; in andosol for MS/MS, LODMS/MS-soil = 15.0 ng×kg–1 dw,LOQMS/MS-soil = 80.0 ng×kg–1 dw. Data from the seventy contaminated soils obtained withthe proposed method and the standard method showed a correlation coefficient of r = 0.86.Data obtained by the two SPME/GC-MS quantitation procedures showed a correlation of r =0.8073. Conclusion. The method proposes a simplified sample preparation andextraction of CLD in water, plant and soil samples, with no solvent manipulation and whichis not time-consuming. The LOD and LOQ were similar to those obtained with other currentlyused methods. The method is reliable and accurate and may be considered as a good tool forresearch purposes.