OPTIMIZATION OF SOLID-LIQUID EXTRACTION WITH LOW TEMPERATURE PARTITION FOR DETERMINATION OF CARBOFURAN IN CUCURBITA PEPO L (“ZUCCHINI”) BY HIGH PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY

<p></p><p>According to results of the Program of Analysis of Pesticide Residues in Foods of the National Agency of Sanitary in Brazil (2013 to 2015) the zucchini, Cucurbita pepo L is one of the non-hardy vegetables, that presented higher contamination index by pesticides residues. One of these agrochemicals is carbofuran, which although not authorized for this crop, is commonly and illegally used for whitefly control. The objective of this study was to optimize the solid-liquid extraction method with low temperature partitioning (SLE/LTP) for the determination of carbofuran residues in zucchini by high performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detector (HPLC-UV). The optimization was performed with a complete factorial design, 2³ to evaluate the simultaneous performance of three factors in two levels, in triplicate. The optimized SLE/LTP-HPLC/UV method showed to be selective, simple and efficient, consuming a small amount of sample and solvent extractor. The average recovery percentage was 75.88%. Samples of zucchini purchased in the Itumbiara-GO trade, Brazil, and submitted to the optimized method did not present carbofuran residues.</p><p></p