SU-HSIANG TSENG*, PI-CHIOU CHANG AND SHIN-SHOU CHOU

National Laboratories of Foods and Drugs, Department of Health, Executive Yuan 161-2, Kuen Yang Street, Nankang 115, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.

(Received: March 21, 2000; Accepted: July 31, 2000)

ABSTRACT

   Ethephon quickly decomposes to ethylene under alkaline and high temperature conditions. In this research, we developed a rapid and simple method suitable for routine analysis of ethephon residues in agricultural products using gas chromatography (GC) equipped with a flame ionization detector (FID). This method was based upon the headspace sampling and determined the ethylene formed. Average recoveries from apples, tomatoes, grapes, kiwifruits and sugarcane, which were spiked with 1~3 ppm ethephon, were in the range of 88.3~98.6% and the coefficient of variation were ranged of 2.2~7.5%. The detection limit was 0.1 ppm.

Key words: agricultural products, ethephon residue, gas chromatography (GC), flame ionization detector (FID), headspace sampling, ethylene