Supramolecular Solvent Based Microextraction with Sugaring-out Assisted Liquid-Liquid Extraction for the Determination of Fungicides in Honey

Azoxystrobin, chlorothalonil and cyprodinil were successfully extracted and determined from honey samples using a supramolecular solvent-based microextraction method combined with environmentally friendly sugaring-out assisted liquid-liquid extraction. Fungicides from the samples were first extracted with tetrahydrofuran in a sugaring-out assisted liquid-liquid extraction step. The phase separation has occurred due to the sugar content of honey being approximately 80%. The tetrahydrofuran (THF) phase containing the fungicides was then used in the second step to form supramolecular solvent (SUPRAS). For the optimization of the microextraction method, the effects of various parameters such as first vortex time (4.0 min.), alkanol type (1-decanol), percentage of tetrahydrofuran (10%), pH (-), ionic strength (-) and second vortex time (4.0 min.) were investigated. Under optimum conditions, the detection limit was between 0.003 and 0.006 mu g g-1 and the limit of quantification between 0.01 and 0.02 mu g g-1. The extraction recovery in the range of 70.1%-80.7% and the relative recovery in the range of 92.7%-103.6% were obtained. The developed method was successfully applied to four honey samples obtained from supermarkets.