Dissipation characteristics of mandipropamid and thiamethoxam for establishment of pre-harvest residue limits in lettuce

The dissipation characteristics and kinetics of fungicide mandipropamid and insecticide thiamethoxam in lettuce under greenhouse conditions were investigated at three different lettuce-growing fields for estimating the pre-harvest residue limits (PHRLs). The analytical methods were fully validated for the quantitation of pesticide residues using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography-Photo Diode Array detector or Ultraviolet-Visible Detector and applied to real samples. The lettuces suitable for shipment were harvested during 10 days including pre-harvest interval after treatment at the recommended dose by safe-use guidelines. The initial mean residues in different fields were 6.68-17.87 and 4.96-8.31 mg/kg for mandipropamid and thiamethoxam, respectively, which decreased to 16-54 and 14-44% in 10 days. The clothianidin, a metabolite of thiamethoxam, was detected in <0.02 to 0.37 mg/kg. The dissipation of both pesticides followed first-order kinetics over a period of 10 days after application. Based on the residue data, the mean dissipation rate constant (λ) and biological half-lives (T_1/2) were estimated to be −0.1060 and 6.5 days of mandipropamid and −0.1236 and 5.6 days of thiamethoxam. The PHRLs for lettuce on the 10th and 5th day before harvesting were calculated to be 63.24 and 43.56 mg/kg for mandipropamid, and 44.66 and 25.88 mg/kg for thiamethoxam, with −0.0746 and −0.1091 of the upper 95% confidence intervals of dissipation rate constant, respectively. This work would be useful as guidance for adjusting the shipment date and contribute to stabilizing the income of farmers in Korea.