Direct determination of neonicotinoid insecticides in an analytically challenging crop such as Chinese chives using selective ELISAs

Easy-to-use commercial kit-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) have been used to detect neonicotinoid dinotefuran, clothianidin and imidacloprid in Chinese chives, which are considered a troublesome matrix for chromatographic techniques. Based on their high water solubility, water was used as an extractant. Matrix interference could be avoided substantially just diluting sample extracts. Average recoveries of insecticides from spiked samples were 85-113%, with relative standard deviation of <15%. The concentrations of insecticides detected from the spiked samples with the proposed ELISA methods correlated well with those by the reference high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. The residues analyzed by the ELISA methods were consistently 1.24 times that found by the HPLC method, attributable to loss of analyte during sample clean-up for HPLC analyses. It was revealed that the ELISA methods can be applied easily to pesticide residue analysis in troublesome matrix such as Chinese chives.