Supercritical fluid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry for the analysis of pesticide residues in dried spices

In the last decade, the production and consumption of spices in Europe have doubled in terms of area harvested and production quantity. Similar trends are observed worldwide during the same period. Spices are complex matrices that contain large amounts of essential oils, plant nutrients and secondary metabolites such as flavonoids, terpenes and alkaloids. These interfering matrix components produce ion enhancement or suppression which can be very strong and depend on the origin of the sample.
This study describes the improvement of sensitivity and the reduction of the ion suppression that can be achieved by supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) in the analysis of dried spices as difficult matrices.