Rapid and Reliable Method for Analyzing Acaricides in Honey-Based Products

The acaricide use (Amitraz, Bromopropylate, Coumaphos, Tau-fluvalinate, and Fipronil) is a common worldwide practice in honey cultivation for protect the production. Nevertheless, their presence decreases honey safety and quality and affects the human health. Therefore, it is important to set up an easy, reliable, and rapid analytical method for determining such compounds in bee’s products (honey, molasses, and royal jelly). The method, based on solid-phase extraction using Carbograph 1 as sorbent and analysis by gas chromatography coupled with ion trap mass spectrometer detector (GC/IT-MS), allows very efficient recoveries ranging between 99 and 106 % with relative standard deviation (RSD) ≤5 % for the standard solution and between 98 and 102 % with RSD ≤9 % for samples spiked with 40 ng g−1 of each acaricide. The adsorption isotherms and breakthrough curves for Carbograph 1 sugary solution are reported. The instrumental analytical protocol has been found to yield a linear calibration in the range 10–300 ng g−1 with r2 ≥ 0.991. The limits of detection vary between 1.4 and 5.3 ng g−1 (RSD ≤4 %), whereas the limits of quantification range between 4.6 and 9.4 ng g−1 (RSD ≤6 %); the intra-day and inter-day repeatabilities as RSD were below 9 and 15 %, respectively. The analytical method developed has been applied to several commercial and home-made bee products.