Determination of Methoxyfenozide Residues in Water and Soil by Liquid Chromatography: Evaluation of its Environmental Fate Under Laboratory Conditions

Pesticide residues play several key roles as environmental and food pollutants and it is crucial to develop a method for the rapid determination of pesticide residues in environments. In this study, a simple, effective, and sensitive method has been developed for the quantitative analysis of methoxyfenozide in water and soil when kept under laboratory conditions. The content of methoxyfenozide in water and soil was analyzed by first purifying the compound through liquid-liquid extraction and partitioning followed by florisil gel filtration. Upon the completion of the purification step the residual levels were monitored through high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using a UV absorbance detector. The average recoveries of methoxyfenozide from three replicates spiked at two different concentrations and were ranged from 83.5% to 110.3% and from 98.1% to 102.8% in water and soil, respectively. The limits of detection (LODs) and limits of quantitation (LOQs) were 0.004 vs. 0.012 ppm and 0.008 vs. 0.024 ppm, respectively. The method was successfully applied to evaluate the behavioral fate of a 21% wettable powder (WP) methoxyfenozide throughout the course of 14 days. A first-order model was found to accurately fit the dissipation of methoxyfenozide in water with and a DT(50) value of 3.03 days was calculated from the fit. This result indicates that methoxyfenozide dissipates rapidly and does not accumulate in water.