Quantitative Determination of Pesticides in Soil by Thin-layer Chromatography and Video Densitometry

Reversed phase thin-layer chromatography (RP-TLC) in conjunction with video densitometry has been used for the quantitative determination of a six-component mixture of pesticides. Excellent separation of propham, chlorpropham, atrazine, diflubenzuron, tetramethrin and α-cypermethrin was achieved using the methanol/water solvent system (volume fraction of methanol, φ = 80%). Video densitometric quantification was validated for linearity, precision and detection limit. All results were satisfactory according to the validation requirements. The method was tested for the determination of pesticides from spiked soil using ultrasonic extraction with various solvents