Journal of Chromatography A, 886 (2000) 319–322 www.elsevier.com / locate / chroma Short communication Analysis of flufenacet in soil, wheat grain and straw by gas chromatography a a b, * Mohammad Bazoobandi , N.T. Yaduraju , Gita Kulshrestha a Division of Agronomy, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India b Division of Agricultural Chemicals, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa campus, New Delhi 100012, India Received 22 November 1999; received in revised form 31 March 2000; accepted 3 April 2000 Abstract An analytical procedure for detecting residues of a new herbicide, flufenacet, in soil, wheat grain and straw by gas chromatographic method using various solvents and extraction methods was standardized. The best results were obtained when samples fortified with flufenacet and were extracted with acetone–0.2 M HCl (95:5) using a horizontal shaker for soil and Soxhlet extractor for plant samples. The clean up was done by partitioning with dichloromethane. The GC equipped with an electron-capture detector and a column packing of HP-1 as stationary phase and nitrogen as a carrier gas at a flow-rate of 21 15 ml min was used. Temperatures of oven, injector and detector were adjusted at 190, 210 and 2708C, respectively. The retention time of flufenacet was 2.07 min. The herbicide recoveries ranged between 81 to 100% from the three matrices.  2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Soil; Pesticides; Flufenacet 1. Introduction ed ion monitoring–mass spectroscopy (GC–MS– SIM) for measuring residues of Foe 5043 and its Flufenacet (Foe 5043) hN-(4-fluorophenyl)-N-(1- metabolites in different crops [3]. In this method the methyl-ethyl)-2-[5-(trifuoromethyl)-1, 3, 4-thiadiazol- residues were briefly oxidized and hydrolyzed to the 2-yl]oxy]acetamidej, a new soil acting herbicide has corresponding fluoroaniline by digesting the crop been introduced recently as a selective herbicide to matrix with sulfuric acid. The fluoroaniline was control grassy weeds in a wide range of crops separated from fortified crop matrix by steam dis- including cereals [1,2]. tillation, recovered by extraction and derivatized. Although there are several reports on the efficacy The derivative was measured by GC–MS–SIM. The of flufenacet against various weeds in cereal crops, method gave recoveries of 67–116% of Foe 5043 there are very few reports on the method of analysis and its metabolites at the 0.10 ppm level. The and its environmental fate in agro ecosystems. Gould environmental fate of flufenacet in soil under an- et al., (1997) reported a gas chromatography–select- aerobic and aerobic conditions was studied using 14 labeled [phenyl-U- C]Foe 5043. It was relatively *Corresponding author. stable under anaerobic compared to aerobic con- 0021-9673 / 00 / $ – see front matter  2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S0021-9673(00)00429-5