ENHANCED CHEMILUMINESCENCE KINETIC ELISA OF DICHLORPROP METHYL-ESTER

A competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for dichlorpro p methyl ester (DME) with an anti-rabbit secondary antibody conjugated to peroxidase was developed in polystyrene plates. The plate was deve loped with a luminol-H2O2-horseradish peroxidase-p-iodophenol mixture by using a fibre optic to collect the chemiluminescent emission. The s tandard curve was produced for 0.05 to 10000 ng ml(-1) DME. The minimu m detectable concentration was 0.11 ng ml(-1) and the relative standar d deviation was 7.26% for a 50 ng ml(-1) sample of (n = 10). The ELISA procedure was selective with respect to structurally similar compound s usually found in formulations of pesticides. This method was applied to DME added to wheat grain extracts with recoveries between 97.1 and 103.6% for 5-500 ng ml(-1).