A rapid and simple sample pretreatment method coupled with HPLC–UV for the simultaneous determination of eight insecticides in fruits

A specific, precise and accurate high-performance liquid chromatography method with ultraviolet detection was established for the simultaneous determination of eight insecticides in fruit samples. Samples were extracted with acetone and cleaned using the quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe technique. Under the optimized conditions, wide linearity ranges (5.0–2000 μg kg −1 ) were obtained for the eight insecticides and the correlation coefficients ( r ) ranged from 0.9985 to 0.9994. The limit of detection and limit of quantification were 0.27–1.85 and 0.90–6.18 μg kg −1 , respectively, and acceptable reproducibility (RSD < 6.6% for intra-day, < 9.2% for inter-day) were achieved. The recovery rates for all insecticides at two spiked levels of 20 and 50 μg kg −1 in fruits samples ranged from 85.9 to 110.4%, and the relative standard deviations were in the range of 3.3–8.9%. The results demonstrated clearly that the approach developed provides reliable, simple, rapid and environmentally friendly quantification and identification of eight insecticides in fruits. These results not only gave insights about the insecticides but also contributed to environmental protection and food safety.