One-step extraction and analysis of 45 contaminants of emerging concern using QuEChERS methodology and HR-MS in radish leaves and roots

Abstract

The scarcity of freshwater has led to a considerable increase of the reuse of reclaimed wastewater for irrigation of field crops [1,2]. This practice potentially exposes agricultural produce to a large variety of xenobiotic compounds including contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) which have been widely recognized to be present in wastewater [3]. Common approaches for the extraction of CECs from crops rely on solid-liquid extraction [4], assisted solvent extraction [5], ultra-sound solvent extraction [6] and recently QuEChERS (QUick, Easy, CHeap, Effective, Rugged and Safe) [[7], [8]–9]. Here, eight QuEChERS-based methodologies were compared for their suitability to determine 45 CECs in roots and leaves of soil-grown radish.

The key points of the method development were: • The development of two single-step analytical methods specific for radish root and leaves, after testing eight different approaches using QuEChERS extraction for the quantitation of 45 CECs. The analytical methodology selected requires minimal time and solvent, making it cost-effective.

• Methods validation were performed at five concentrations levels (2, 5, 10, 50 and 200 ng g−1), with low limits of quantification between 0.01 and 0.32 ng g−1.

• The two optimized methodologies may be applied to identify large number of compounds of different families in radish crop. However, validation will be needed to quantify compounds different from the target compounds of this paper.