Testing organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in soil? Speed, accuracy matter

[RahmatU]

Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) are commonly used to protect crops, livestock, buildings and households from the damaging effects of insects. However, OCPs have been banned from the United States and many other countries because of their persistent presence in the environment and agriculture.  

The concentration of OCPs found in food, environmental or biological samples are typically determined using gas chromatographic methods, including gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Yet these methods are labor intensive, time-consuming, involve multiple instruments, and result in significant soil consumption.  

In a recently released application note, experts present a fully automated solvent extraction system for faster and more reliable analysis of OCPs in soil compounds, the combined Thermo Scientific™ EXTREVA™ ASE™ Accelerated Solvent Extractor and GC-ECD system. 

The challenge: With the persistence of OCPs, labs around the world are analyzing soil samples with common extraction methods, including Soxhlet, sonication and microwave extraction. However, many labs struggle with the amount of time, labor and solvent consumption required.  

A better method: The EXTREVA™ ASE™  system is a fully automated analysis technology that reduces the time, energy and solvent usage compared to conventional sample extraction techniques.  

The EXTREVA ASE system is based on gas-assisted solvent delivery and parallel solvent extraction methods. This fully automated system combines the extraction and evaporation capabilities in one instrument, and it can be used on extracts from up to 16 solid and semi-solid samples.  

Results and learnings:  In this application note, the fully automated extraction system, EXTREVA ASE, enables a new method for analyzing the levels of 20 OCPs in soil samples. Other learnings include: 

• The EXTREVA ASE system efficiently and reliably tackles challenging organochlorine applications. 
• The EXTREVA ASE system saves time, and reduces errors and solvent usage, enabling unattended operations and significantly increasing analytical throughput.  

 

Want to learn more? 

Read the application note 

Take a deeper dive and see all the new features of the EXTREVA ASE accelerated solvent extractor.