Abstract Background Symmetrical ( s- ) triazine herbicides are the most commonly used pesticides, which frequently leave pesticide residues in food and environmental samples. Due to their carcinogenic and endocrine-disrupting properties, monitoring s -triazine herbicide residues in the water and food samples has become a critical concern of environmental and public health protection. Furthermore, there is no reported study on the application of salting-out assisted liquid-liquid extraction (SALLE) for simultaneous extraction of chloro- s -triazines and their major degradation products from environmental water and fruit samples. Therefore, SALLE method was developed for the simultaneous extraction of chloro- s -triazine pesticides and their degradation products from diverse samples by HPLC-DAD. Methods In the present study, SALLE method based on binary salts was developed for the simultaneous extraction of multi-residue chloro- s -triazine pesticides, including (atrazine, cyanazine, and simazine), with their degradation products (deethylatrazine and deisopropylatrazine) from environmental water and fruit samples prior to analysis by HPLC-DAD. Various parameters that can affect the method, such as extraction solvent type and volume, type, mass and ratio of salts and pH effect, centrifugation and vortexing times were successfully optimized. Results The developed method provided good linearity with coefficients of regression in the range of 0.991–0.997, under the optimized conditions. The method demonstrated lower limit of detection and limit of quantification in the range of 0.002–0.089 and 0.0066–0.299 µg/L, respectively. Repeatability and reproducibility in terms of %RSD were found in the range of 2.15–7.13% and 3.28–8.95%, respectively. The mean recovery was varied from 74.06 to 109.90% with RSD ( n = 3) below 10% for all samples studied. Conclusion The developed method has been successfully applied for the trace level extraction of pesticide residues and their degradation products in real samples, including environmental waters, and fruit samples. Hence, the developed method can be used as a selective and green alternative for the extraction of pesticide residues in water, fruits and other contaminated food samples.
Gemechu et al. (Sun,) studied this question.