Direct determination of glyphosate and its major metabolite, aminomethylphosphonic acid, in fruits and vegetables by mixed-mode hydrophilic interaction/weak anion-exchange liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray tandem mass spectrometry

A novel method was developed for the direct, sensitive, and rapid determination of glyphosate and its major metabolite, aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA), in fruit and vegetable samples by mixed-mode hydrophilic interaction/weak anion-exchange liquid chromatography (HILIC/WAX) coupled with electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS). Homogenized samples were extracted with water, without derivatization or further clean-up, and the extracts were injected directly onto the Asahipak NH2P-50 4E column (250 mm × 4.6 mm i.d., 5 μm). The best results were obtained when the column was operated under mixed-mode HILIC/WAX elution conditions. An initial 10-min washing step with acetonitrile/water (10:90, v/v) in HILIC mode was used to remove potentially interfering compounds, and then the analytes were eluted in WAX mode with acetonitrile and water containing 0.1 mol L−1 ammonium hydroxide under gradient elution for the ESI analysis in negative ion mode. Limits of quantification of glyphosate and AMPA were 5 μg kg−1 and 50 μg kg−1, respectively, with limits of detection as low as 1.2 μg kg−1 for glyphosate and 15 μg kg−1 for AMPA. The linearity was satisfactory, with correlation coefficients (r) > 0.9966. Recovery studies were carried out on spiked matrices (6 vegetables, 3 fruits) with glyphosate at four concentrations and AMPA at three concentrations. The mean recoveries for glyphosate and AMPA were 75.3–110% and 76.1–110%, respectively, with relative standard deviations in the range of 1.1–13.8%. The intra-day precision (n = 7) for glyphosate and AMPA in vegetable and fruit samples spiked at an intermediate level between 5.9% and 7.5%, and the inter-day precision over 11 days (n = 11) was between 7.0% and 13%.

► Glyphosate and AMPA levels were determined directly by LC–MS/MS.
► Samples were analyzed without time-consuming preparation or tedious derivatization.
► Mixed-mode HILIC/WAX elution removed interfering compounds and minimized matrix effects.
► Sensitivity was higher than GC–MS and similar to LC–MS/MS after FMOC derivatization.