Enantioseparation and determination of the chiral phenylpyrazole insecticide ethiprole in agricultural and environmental samples and its enantioselective degradation in soil

An effective method for the enantioselective determination of ethiprole enantiomers in agricultural and environmental samples was developed. The effects of solvent extraction, mobile phase and thermodynamic parameters for chiral recognition were fully investigated. Complete enantioseparation of the ethiprole enantiomers was achieved on a Lux Cellulose-2 column. The stereochemical structures of ethiprole enantiomers were also determined, and (R)-(+)-ethiprole was first eluted. The average recoveries were 82.7–104.9% with intra-day RSD of 1.7–8.2% in soil, cucumber, spinach, tomato, apple and peach under optimal conditions. Good linearity (R² ≥ 0.9991) was obtained for all the matrix calibration curves within a range of 0.1 to 10 mg L⁻¹. The limits of detection for both enantiomers were estimated to be 0.008 mg kg⁻¹ in soil, cucumber, spinach and tomato and 0.012 mg kg⁻¹ in apple and peach, which were lower than the maximum residue levels established in Japan. The results indicate that the proposed method is convenient and reliable for the enantioselective detection of ethiprole in agricultural and environmental samples. The behavior of ethiprole in soil was studied under field conditions and the enantioselective degradation was observed with enantiomer fraction values varying from 0.494 to 0.884 during the experiment. The (R)-(+)-ethiprole (t_1/2 = 11.6 d) degraded faster than (S)-(−)-ethiprole (t_1/2 = 34.7 d). This report is the first describe a chiral analytical method and enantioselective behavior of ethiprole, and these results should be extremely useful for the risk evaluation of ethiprole in food and environmental safety. - Highlights: • The ethiprole enantiomers were completely separated. • A novel method for enantioselective determination of ethiprole was developed. • The absolute configurations of ethiprole enantiomers were firstly determined. • The (R)-(+)-ethiprole was preferentially degraded in soil.