Determination of pesticides in honey by ultrasonic solvent extraction and thin-layer chromatography

A rapid method for quantitative determination of atrazine and simazine in honey samples was investigated. The procedure was based on the extraction of pesticides by sonication with benzene:water = 1:1 (v/v) mixture, thin-layer chromatographic separation and quantification by CAMAG Video Documentation system in conjunction with the Reprostar 3. The extraction procedure was optimized with regard to the amount of solvent, duration of sonication and the number of extraction steps. The apparent recovery of pesticides from honey was 92.3 ± 2.4 for atrazine and 94.2 ± 2.8 for simazine, when they were extracted in three steps for 20 min using 20 ml of solvent. Ultrasonic solvent extraction was compared with traditional shake-flask extraction method.