Determination of glyphosate in surface water with high organic matter content

GLYPHOSATE IMPACT on human health and the environment: Sustainable alternatives to replace it in Mexico

Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum, non-selective herbicide used to control weeds and protect agricultural crops, and it is classified as potentially carcinogenic by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. In Mexico, the use of pesticides is a common practice, including glyphosate. However, on December 31st, 2020, the Mexican government decreed the prohibition of this herbicide as of January 2024. In this review, we investigate the association between glyphosate and cancer risk and found that most of the studies focused using animals showing negative effects such as genotoxicity, cytotoxicity and neurotoxicity, some studies used cancer cell lines showing proliferative effects due to glyphosate exposure. To our knowledge, in Mexico, there are no scientific reports on the association of glyphosate with any type of cancer. In addition, we reviewed the toxicological effects of the herbicide glyphosate, and the specific case of the current situation of the use and environmental damage of this herbicide in Mexico. We found that few studies have been published on glyphosate, and that the largest number of publications are from the International Agency for Research on Cancer classification to date. Additionally, we provide data on glyphosate stimulation at low doses as a biostimulant in crops and analytical monitoring techniques for the detection of glyphosates in different matrices. Finally, we have tried to summarize the actions of the Mexican government to seek sustainable alternatives and replace the use of glyphosate, to obtain food free of this herbicide and take care of the health of the population and the environment.

Method of Glyphosate, AMPA, and Glufosinate Ammonium Determination in Beebread by Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry after Molecularly Imprinted Solid-Phase Extraction

The aim of this study was to develop a method for the determination of glyphosate, its metabolite aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA), and glufosinate ammonium residues in beebread samples, which could then be used to assess bees' exposure to their residues. The complexity of beebread's matrix, combined with the specific properties of glyphosate itself, required careful selection and optimization of each analysis step. The use of molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction (MIP-SPE) by AFFINIMIP glyphosate as an initial clean-up step significantly eliminated matrix components and ensured an efficient derivatization step. Colorless beebread extracts were derivatized by the addition of 9-fluorenylmethyl chloroformate (FMOC-Cl). After derivatization, in order to remove FMOC-OH and residual borate buffer, a solid-phase extraction (SPE) clean-up step using Oasis HLB was carried out. Instrumental analysis was performed by liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The method was validated according to the SANTE/11312/2021 guideline at concentrations of 5, 10, and 100 µg/kg, and satisfactory recovery (trueness) values (76-111%) and precision (RSDr) ≤ 18% were obtained. The limit of quantification (LOQ) was 5 µg/kg for AMPA and glufosinate ammonium and 10 µg/kg for glyphosate. The method was positively verified by the international proficiency test. Analysis of beebread samples showed the method's usefulness in practice. The developed method could be a reliable tool for the assessment of beebread's contamination with residues of glyphosate, its metabolite AMPA, and glufosinate ammonium.

Inflammatory, Oxidative Stress, and Apoptosis Effects in Zebrafish Larvae after Rapid Exposure to a Commercial Glyphosate Formulation

Glyphosate-based herbicides (GBH) are the most used herbicides in the world, carrying potentially adverse consequences to the environment and non-target species due to their massive and inadequate use. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of acute exposure to a commercial formulation of glyphosate, Roundup^® Flex (RF), at environmentally relevant and higher concentrations in zebrafish larvae through the assessment of the inflammatory, oxidative stress and cell death response. Transgenic Tg(mpxGFP)i114 and wild-type (WT) zebrafish larvae (72 h post-fertilisation) were exposed to 1, 5, and 10 µg mL^-1 of RF (based on the active ingredient concentration) for 4 h 30 min. A concentration of 2.5 µg mL^-1 CuSO₄ was used as a positive control. Copper sulphate exposure showed effectiveness in enhancing the inflammatory profile by increasing the number of neutrophils, nitric oxide (NO) levels, reactive oxygen species (ROS), and cell death. None of the RF concentrations tested showed changes in the number of neutrophils and NO. However, the concentration of 10 µg a.i. mL^-1 was able to induce an increase in ROS levels and cell death. The activity of antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione peroxidase (GPx)), the biotransformation activity, the levels of reduced (GSH) and oxidised (GSSG) glutathione, lipid peroxidation (LPO), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) were similar among groups. Overall, the evidence may suggest toxicological effects are dependent on the concentration of RF, although at concentrations that are not routinely detected in the environment. Additional studies are needed to better understand the underlying molecular mechanisms of this formulation.

Assessment of Glyphosate Impact on the Agrofood Ecosystem

Agro-industries should adopt effective strategies to use agrochemicals such as glyphosate herbicides cautiously in order to protect public health. This entails careful testing and risk assessment of available choices, and also educating farmers and users with mitigation strategies in ecosystem protection and sustainable development. The key to success in this endeavour is using scientific research on biological pest control, organic farming and regulatory control, etc., for new developments in food production and safety, and for environmental protection. Education and research is of paramount importance for food and nutrition security in the shadow of climate change, and their consequences in food production and consumption safety and sustainability. This review, therefore, diagnoses on the use of glyphosate and the associated development of glyphosate-resistant weeds. It also deals with the risk assessment on human health of glyphosate formulations through environment and dietary exposures based on the impact of glyphosate and its metabolite AMPA-(aminomethyl)phosphonic acid-on water and food. All this to setup further conclusions and recommendations on the regulated use of glyphosate and how to mitigate the adverse effects.

Behavioural toxicity of environmental relevant concentrations of a glyphosate commercial formulation - RoundUp® UltraMax - During zebrafish embryogenesis

The use of herbicides with glyphosate as an active ingredient (a.i.) has increased dramatically in recent years, with its residues often being found in either soil or water. Nevertheless, concerns have arisen about its harmful side effects for both ecosystems and wildlife health. Therefore, the objective of this work was to assess the effects of a commercial formulation of glyphosate (RoundUp® UltraMax), at environmentally relevant concentrations on zebrafish embryos through a set of behavioural patterns. Zebrafish embryos were exposed to 0, 1, 2 and 5 μg a.i. mL-1 concentrations of the glyphosate formulation for 72 h (from 2.5 to 75 h post-fertilization (hpf)). After exposure, larvae were washed and allowed to develop until 144 hpf. At this point, the larvae behaviour was evaluated using a battery of tests to assess the general exploratory motility, escape-like responses, anxiety-related behaviours and social interactions. In addition, cortisol levels were assessed. No significant changes were observed relative to the exploratory behaviour in the standard open field. The anxiety-related behaviours were similar among groups, and no social interference was observed following exposure to these glyphosate concentrations. Likewise, cortisol levels remained similar among treatments. Still, the larvae exposed to 5 μg a.i. mL-1 did not react to the presence of an aversive stimulus, supporting glyphosate-induced changes in the sensory-motor coordination during development. In general, these results indicate a possible neurotoxic effect of this glyphosate-based formulation that should be further evaluated. In addition, the results obtained could impose a risk for wildlife sensitive species that should not be neglected.

Field-amplified sample injection and sweeping micellar electrokinetic chromatography in analysis of glyphosate and aminomethylphosphonic acid in wheat

Glyphosate, a widely used herbicide, has been classified as probably carcinogenic to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). In the present study a method based on Field-Amplified Sample Injection and Sweeping Micellar Electrokinetic Chromatography (FASI sweep-MEKC) has been developed and validated for determination of glyphosate and its microbial metabolite aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) in wheat flour. The method involved a preliminary solid phase extraction for cleanup of the aqueous extracts from wheat flour, based sequentially on C18 and strong anion exchange cartridges, followed by derivatization using 9-fluorenylmethylchloroformate. Optimization of sample cleanup and derivatization procedure was carried out by a HPLC-UV method, whereas FASI sweep-MEKC was applied for achieving the sensitivity necessary for analysis of real samples. To this regard, optimum conditions involved the use of an extended path fused-silica capillary (80 cm total length, 50 μm, i.d.) filled with a high concentration buffer (sodium phosphate 100 mM, pH 2.2). Electrokinetic sampling was carried out at -10 kV with injection time of 700 s and the separation of the loaded analytes was performed under MEKC conditions using sodium phosphate buffer 50 mM at pH 2.2, supplemented with sodium dodecyl sulfate, 100 mM. The method was validated for linearity, precision, accuracy and sensitivity, showing that using conventional UV detection (210 nm) the achieved limit of quantitation (LOQ) values for both the analytes were widely lower than those set by Authorities. In particular, LOQ for glyphosate and AMPA were found to be 5 and 2.5 ng/mL, respectively, corresponding to 0.1 and 0.05 mg/kg, in wheat flour. The method, applied to commercially available real samples (wheat flour from different manufacturers) and to an experimental sample obtained by cv. Svevo wheat, can be considered as a convenient alternative to the existing approaches in analysis of complex matrices.

Semi-quantitative non-target analysis of water with liquid chromatography/high-resolution mass spectrometry: How far are we?

Combining high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) with liquid chromatography (LC) has considerably increased the capability of analytical chemistry. Among others, it has stimulated the growth of the non-target analysis, which aims at identifying compounds without their preceding selection. This approach is already widely applied in various fields, such as metabolomics, proteomics, etc. The applicability of LC/HRMS-based non-target analysis in environmental analyses, such as water studies, would be beneficial for understanding the environmental fate of polar pollutants and evaluating the health risks exposed by the new emerging contaminants. During the last five to seven years the use of LC/HRMS-based non-target analysis has grown rapidly. However, routine non-target analysis is still uncommon for most environmental monitoring agencies and environmental scientists. The main reasons are the complicated data processing and the inability to provide quantitative information about identified compounds. The latter shortcoming follows from the lack of standard substances, considered so far as the soul of each quantitative analysis for the newly discovered pollutants. To overcome this, non-target analyses could be combined with semi-quantitation. This Perspective aims at describing the current methods for non-target analysis, the possibilities and challenges of standard substance-free semi-quantitative analysis, and proposes tools to join these two fields together.

Determination of glyphosate, AMPA, and glufosinate in honey by online solid-phase extraction-liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

A simple method was developed for the simultaneous determination of glyphosate, its main degradation product (aminomethylphosphonic acid), and glufosinate in honey. Aqueous honey solutions were derivatised offline prior to direct analysis of the target analytes using online solid-phase extraction coupled to liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Using the developed procedure, accuracies ranging from 95.2% to 105.3% were observed for all analytes at fortification levels of 5, 50, and 150 μg kg-1 with intra-day precisions ranging from 1.6% to 7.2%. The limit of quantitation (LOQ) was 1 μg kg-1 for each analyte. Two hundred honey samples were analysed for the three analytes with AMPA and glyphosate being most frequently detected (99.0% and 98.5% of samples tested, respectively). The concentrations of glyphosate were found to range from <1 to 49.8 μg kg-1 while those of its degradation product ranged from <1 to 50.1 μg kg-1. The ratio of glyphosate to AMPA was found to vary significantly amongst the samples where both analytes were present above the LOQ. Glufosinate was detected in 125 of 200 samples up to a maximum concentration of 33.0 μg kg-1.

Determination of glyphosate, AMPA and glufosinate in dairy farm water from Argentina using a simplified UHPLC-MS/MS method

Argentina, together with the USA and Brazil, produces approximately 80% of the total worldwide glyphosate loadings. The development of a simplified ultra-high performance liquid chromatographic tandem mass spectrometric method (UHPLC-MS/MS) for the determination of glyphosate, aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) and glufosinate in water is described, including studies of several alternatives of 9-fluorenylmethylchloroformate (FMOC-Cl) derivatization and pretreatment steps. The proposed method includes acidification and neutralization of a low sample volume (3 mL), 2 hours derivatization step, cleanup with dichloromethane, followed by reverse phase UHPLC-MS/MS determination of the analytes. Figures of merit were satisfactory in terms of linearity, selectivity, accuracy and intermediate precision (%REC 70-105% with RSD < 15%). Limits of quantification (LOQ) were suitable for monitoring purposes (0.6, 0.2, 0.1 μg/L for glyphosate, AMPA and glufosinate respectively). The validated methodology was applied for the analysis of livestock wells waters from 40 dairy farms located in the central region of Argentina. Glyphosate and AMPA were quantified in 15% and 53% of the analyzed samples with concentrations ranging from 0.6-11.3 μg/L and 0.2-6.5 μg/L respectively. Greater concentrations of glyphosate were also verified in waters from open-reservoir tanks, which are directly exposed to the farm environment. In these cases glyphosate and AMPA occurrence increased, being quantified in the 33% and 61% of the samples with values ranging 0.6-21.2 μg/L and 0.2-4.2 μg/L respectively. Also in this case glufosinate was found in 52% samples at Collapse

Key Words

• AMPA
• Dairy farm environment
• FMOC-UHPLC-MS/MS
• Glufosinate
• Glyphosate
• Water

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MESH Headings

• Aminobutyrates/analysis
• Argentina
• Brazil
• Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid
• Dairying/statistics & numerical data
• Environmental Monitoring
• Farms
• Glycine/analogs & derivatives
• Glycine/analysis
• Herbicides/analysis
• Isoxazoles/analysis
• Tandem Mass Spectrometry
• Tetrazoles/analysis
• Water Pollutants, Chemical/analysis
• Glyphosate

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Affiliation(s)

Luisina Delma Demonte Programa de Investigación y Análisis de Residuos y Contaminantes Químicos (PRINARC), Facultad de Ingeniería Química, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Santiago del Estero 2654, 3000 Santa Fe, Argentina; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas Técnicas (CONICET), C1033AAJ Buenos Aires, Argentina
Nicolás Michlig Programa de Investigación y Análisis de Residuos y Contaminantes Químicos (PRINARC), Facultad de Ingeniería Química, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Santiago del Estero 2654, 3000 Santa Fe, Argentina
Monica Gaggiotti Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria, EEA Rafaela, Ruta 34 km 227, 2300 Rafaela, Santa Fe, Argentina
Claudia Guadalupe Adam Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas Técnicas (CONICET), C1033AAJ Buenos Aires, Argentina; IQAL (UNL-CONICET), Facultad de Ingeniería Química, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Santiago del Estero 2829, 3000 Santa Fe, Argentina
Horacio Ramón Beldoménico Programa de Investigación y Análisis de Residuos y Contaminantes Químicos (PRINARC), Facultad de Ingeniería Química, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Santiago del Estero 2654, 3000 Santa Fe, Argentina
Maria Rosa Repetti Programa de Investigación y Análisis de Residuos y Contaminantes Químicos (PRINARC), Facultad de Ingeniería Química, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Santiago del Estero 2654, 3000 Santa Fe, Argentina.

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Occurrence of glyphosate in beer from the Latvian market

A sensitive LC-MS/MS method for the determination of glyphosate in beer has been developed, validated, and applied to analyse 100 beer samples from 24 different producers and distributors in Latvia. The selected samples represented most beer brands and varieties sold in local supermarkets. Different procedures for sample preparation and chromatographic separation were compared. The final version of the method consisted of solid phase extraction, chromatographic separation on aminopropyl stationary phase, and detection using tandem mass spectrometry. The concentration of glyphosate in beer varied from below the LOD of 0.2 μg kg-1 up to 150 μg kg-1, higher than previously reported. Significantly higher (p < 0.01) content of glyphosate was observed in beers that did not have the country of production disclosed on the label and were sold in local supermarkets by distributors from Latvia (1.8 μg kg-1 median concentration in locally produced beer, 6.7 μg kg-1 in beer of undisclosed origin).

Analytical insight into degradation processes of aminopolyphosphonates as potential factors that induce cyanobacterial blooms

Aminopolyphosphonates (AAPs) are commonly used industrial complexones of metal ions, which upon the action of biotic and abiotic factors undergo a breakdown and release their substructures. Despite the low toxicity of AAPs towards vertebrates, products of their transformations, especially those that contain phosphorus and nitrogen, can affect algal communities. To verify whether such chemical entities are present in water ecosystems, much effort has been made in developing fast, inexpensive, and reliable methods for analyzing phosphonates. However, unfortunately, the methods described thus far require time-consuming sample pretreatment and offer relatively high values of the limit of detection (LOD). The aim of this study was to develop an analytical approach to study the environmental fate of AAPs. Four phosphonic acids, N,N-bis(phosphonomethyl)glycine (GBMP), aminotris(methylenephosphonic) acid (ATMP), hexamethylenediamine-N,N,N',N'-tetrakis(methylphosphonic) acid (HDTMP), and diethylenetriamine penta(methylenephosphonic) acid (DTPMP) were selected and examined in a water matrix. In addition, the susceptibility of these compounds to biotransformations was tested in colonies of five freshwater cyanobacteria-microorganisms responsible for the so-called blooms in the water. Our efforts to track the AAP decomposition were based on derivatization of N-alkyl moieties with p-toluenesulfonyl chloride (tosylation) followed by chromatographic (HPLC-UV) separation of derivatives. This approach allowed us to determine seven products of the breakdown of popular phosphonate chelators, in nanomolar concentrations and in one step. It should be noted that the LOD of four of those products, aminemethylphosphonic acid (AMPA), N-phosphomethyl glycine (NPMG), N-(methyl)aminemethanephosphonic acid (MAMPA), and N-(methyl) glycine (SAR), was set below the concentration of 50 nM. Among those substances, N-(methylamino)methanephosphonic acid (MAMPA) was identified for the first time as the product of decomposition of the examined aminopolyphosphonates.