Recent advances in the analysis of pesticide residues in both environmental and food commodities hold out the possibility of analyzing many pesticides in one analytical run. In Pesticide Protocols, expert researchers-who have each perfected the techniques they write about-describe in step-by-step detail robust methods for the detection of pesticide compounds or their metabolites, techniques that are highly useful in food, environmental, and biological monitoring, and in studies of exposure via food, water, air, and the skin or lungs. The methods range from gas and liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry detection and other classic detectors, to capillary electrophoresis and immunochemical or radioimmunoassay techniques. The authors apply these broad-ranging techniques to the analysis of several families of pesticides, to pesticide residues in vegetables, to pesticides in water and air, and to pesticide exposure. The authors have focused on extraction and cleanup procedures in order to develop and optimize more fully automated and miniaturized methods, including solid-phase extraction, solid-phase microextraction, microwave-assisted extraction, and on-line tandem liquid chromatography trace enrichment, among others. The protocols follow the successful Methods in Biotechnology(TM) series format, each offering step-by-step laboratory instructions, an introduction outlining the principles behind the technique, lists of the necessary equipment and reagents, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls.
Comprehensive and versatile, Pesticide Protocols offers analysts powerful and highly practical tools for analyzing the presence of pesticides in complex matrices.