Method for One Step DDT Extraction and Cleanup in Tobacco for Monitoring Purposes

A simplified extraction and purification method is described for preparing tobacco samples for monitoring organochloride pesticides by GLC. For DDT, only one 8 hrs Soxhlet extraction in a paper thimble is necessary. Further extractions can be made for other pesticides such as dieldrin and endosulphan sulphate. No additional column chromatography purification is required before GLC analysis. The method gives at least as accurate and reproducible results as the other methods used for comparison, as well as having the following advantages:

1. Less chemicals are used and the cost per sample is reduced to one fifth of the cost of the old method.

2. The time required for each sample is greatly reduced including ancillary operations such as preparing and cleaning glassware. Thirty or more samples can be done per day including calculations.

3. Because fewer stages are involved in the new method less pesticide is lost from the samples during extraction and reproducibility and accuracy are improved.