Simultaneous determination of benzimidazole fungicides by HPLC on apples, pears and their pulps

Abstract

Abstract The simultaneous HPLC determination of carbendazim, thiabendazole and thiophanate‐methyl in apples, pears and their pulps is described. The method is based on a clean‐up procedure carried out on an Extrelut 20 cartridge followed by HPLC analysis on a Diol column using hexune+isopropanol as mobile phase. Average recoveries of 83.8% for carbendazim, 82.9% for thiabendazole and 68.8% for thiophanate‐methyl on apple matrix were obtained; recoveries on pear matrix were in the same range. Detection limits with UV detection at 285 nm of 100 ng ml −1 for carbendazim, 140 ng ml −1 for thiabendazole and 500 ng ml −1 for thiophanate‐methyl were achieved.