Determination of malathion, coumaphos, and fluvalinate residues in honey by gas chromatography with nitrogen-phosphorus or electron capture detectors

A rapid, reliable, and inexpensive extraction method was developed to deter mine acaricide residues in honey by gas chromatography (GC) with nitrogen-p hosphorus (NP) or electron capture (EC) detectors, Because of the high sele ctivity of the NP detector, no interfering peaks were present and no cleanu p was necessary, A simple cleanup step is proposed for the GC-ECD analysis. Recoveries from spiked honey samples ranged from 79 to 94.4 %, with coeffi cients of variation of 0.3-18.5 %. The quantitation limit obtained was 0.01 5 mg/kg for malathion, 0.020 mg/kg for coumaphos, and 0.005 mg/kg for fluva linate, The method was used to determine the disappearance of malathion and coumaphos residues from honey samples collected from beehives treated with these acaricides, The disappearance of both acaricides was rapid and follo wed a first-order model for the duration of the experiment.