Herbicides: Scientific Background and Food Safety

**97**

**Chapter 7**

**Abstract**

A Review of the Analytical

Chromatography for Analyzing

*Pasquale Avino, Ivan Notardonato and Mario Vincenzo Russo*

Glyphosate is a pesticide widely used in agriculture, horticulture, and silviculture

as well as around homes and gardens. It was introduced by Monsanto in the early 1970s, and it is a broad spectrum, nonselective, post-emergence herbicide that inhibits plants' shikimic acid pathway. Glyphosate is considered as "difficult herbicide" in terms of trace analysis. It has low molecular weight, low volatility, thermal lability, and good water solubility. These properties cause problems in its extraction, purification, and detection. The determination often requires additional processes that may allow quantification by chromatographic methods. Several analytical procedures have been developed based on solid-phase extraction, ion-exchange chromatography, or matrix solid phase dispersion. Most published methods involve liquid extraction followed by clean-up. This review would like to revise the literature on this issue discussing the relevant chromatographic methods reported in the literature in terms of analytical parameters for analyzing such compound in food chain.

**Keywords:** glyphosate, pesticide, herbicide, chromatography, GC, LC, MS,

Glyphosate (GLYP) (or, less commonly, but still used, glyphosphate), a broadspectrum herbicide, is one of the most used pesticides in the world [1], nearly \$5 billion in sales and an annual global production about 825,800,000 kg [2]. Glyphosate is a nonselective herbicide; therefore, it is a molecule that eliminates all

Glyphosate [IUPAC N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine; CAS registry number 1071- 83-6] is an aminophosphoric analogue of glycine and an important amino acid. It was discovered in the early 1950s by Henri Martin and was patented by Monsanto and sold as a Roundup® product for about 20 years; after 2001 (patent expiration date), free production of glyphosate was legally permitted [3, 4]. As of 2010, more than 750 glyphosate products have been on the market [5, 6]. The first important worldwide warning about the GLYP occurred in 2017: the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) confirmed that 36.6% of the Canadian wheat samples had a high

LOD/LOQ, food, recovery, human health

**1. Introduction**

weeds without distinction.

Methods Based on

Glyphosate in Foods
