Collaborative study of a spectrophotometric method for determining maleic hydrazide residues in tobacco and vegetables

Abstract

A distillation-spectrophotometric method for the determination of maleic hydrazide residues in tobacco and vegetables reported previously was studied collaboratively. Ten laboratories submitted analytical results on 10 samples containing residues resulting either from field treatment or laboratory fortification. The samples were estimated to contain from 0.99 to 16.36 mug maleic hydrazide/0.5 g sample analyzed. The coefficients of variation based on precision standard deviation ranged from 57.7% for the lowest residue content to 32.4% for the highest. The corresponding coefficients of variation based on overall standard deviations were estimated to be at least one-fifth larger. Strong evidence of systematic laboratory differences was found (F-test, significant at 0.1%). Apparent recoveries of 10.0 mug maleic hydrazide added to 0.5 g fluecured tobacco and potato were 97.3 and 89.7%, respectively. Apparent recoveries of 16.0 and 16.5 mug added to 0.5 g green bean were 87.4 and 85.5%, respectively. The precision of the method studied was no better than that of the current official final action method, 29.121--29.127, and its adoption is not recommended.