Overview of Analytical Methods for the Determination of Neonicotinoid Pesticides in Honeybee Products and Honeybee

The Chemical Residues in Secondary Beekeeping Products of Environmental Origin

Natural products of bee origin, despite their complex composition and difficulties in standardization, have been of high interest among scientists representing various disciplines from basic sciences to industrial and practical implementation. As long as their use is monitored and they do not impact human health, they can be considered valuable sources of many chemical compounds and are potentially useful in medicine, food processing, nutrition, etc. However, apart from honey, the general turnover of bee products lacks precise and detailed legal requirements ensuring their quality. The different residues in these products constitute a problem, which has been reported in numerous studies. All products derived from beekeeping are made by bees, but they are also influenced by the environment. Such a dual pathway requires detailed surveillance of hazards stemming from outside and inside the apiary. This should be ensured via harmonized requirements arising from the binding legal acts, especially in international and intercontinental trade zones.

Neonicotinoid insecticides in plant-derived Foodstuffs: A review of separation and determination methods based on liquid chromatography

Neonicotinoids (NEOs) are the most widely used insecticides globally. They can contaminate or migrate into foodstuffs and exert severe neonic toxicity on humans. Therefore, lots of feasible analytical methods were developed to assure food safety. Nevertheless, there is a lack of evaluation that the impacts of food attributes on the accurate determination of NEOs. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of sample preparation methods regarding 6 categories of plant-derived foodstuffs. Currently, QuEChERS as the common strategy can effectively extract NEOs from plant-derived foodstuffs. Various enrichment technologies were developed for trace levels of NEOs in processed foodstuffs, and multifarious novel sorbents provided more possibility for removing complex matrices to lower matrix effects. Additionally, detection methods based on liquid chromatography were summarized and discussed in this review. Finally, some limitations were summarized and new directions were proposed for better advancement.

A critical review on the accumulation of neonicotinoid insecticides in pollen and nectar: Influencing factors and implications for pollinator exposure

Neonicotinoids are a class of neuro-active insecticides widely used to protect major crops, primarily because of their broad-spectrum insecticidal activity and low vertebrate toxicity. Owing to their systemic nature, plants readily take up neonicotinoids and translocate them through roots, leaves, and other tissues to flowers (pollen and nectar) that serve as a critical point of exposure to pollinators foraging on treated plants. The growing evidence for potential adverse effects on non-target species, especially pollinators, and persistence has raised serious concerns, as these pesticides are increasingly prevalent in terrestrial and aquatic systems. Despite increasing research efforts, our understanding of the potential toxicity of neonicotinoids and the risks they pose to non-target species remains limited. Therefore, this critical review provides a succinct evaluation of the uptake, translocation, and accumulation processes of neonicotinoids in plants and the factors that may affect the eventual build-up of neonicotinoids in pollen and nectar. The role of plant species, as well as the physicochemical properties and application methods of neonicotinoids is discussed. Potential knowledge gaps are identified, and questions meriting future research are suggested for improving our understanding of the relationship between neonicotinoid residues in plants and exposure to pollinators.

Contamination of Honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) Royal Jelly by Pesticides and Sample Preparation Methods for Its Determination: A Critical Appraisal

Pesticides can easily enter the food chain, harming bee populations and ecosystems. Exposure of beehive products to various contaminants has been identified as one of the factors contributing to the decline in bee populations, and multiple food alerts have been reported. Despite this fact, royal jelly, a valuable bee product with nutritional and functional properties, has received less attention in this context. Pesticide residues of different chemical class can contaminate royal jelly when foraging bees collect pollen or nectar from pesticide-treated flowers, or in some cases, due to its frequent and inappropriate use in the treatment of mites in beehives. To monitor this issue and also make it more reliable, it is crucial to develop effective sample preparation methods for extracting pesticides from royal jelly for subsequent analysis. In this context, this review provides information about sample preparation methods (solid-phase extraction, solvent extraction, and QuEChERS-quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged and safe) and analytical methods that have been validated or improved to extract and analyze pesticides, respectively, in royal jelly samples of different origins. Finally, future perspectives are discussed. With this background, we aim to provide data that can guide future research related to this topic.

Analytical Methods Based on Liquid Chromatography and Capillary Electrophoresis to Determine Neonicotinoid Residues in Complex Matrices. A Comprehensive Review

Neonicotinoids (NNIs) are neuro-active and systemic insecticides widely used to protect crops from pest attack. During the last decades, there has been an increase concern about their uses and toxic effects, especially to beneficial and non-target insects such as pollinators. To assess potential health hazards and the environmental impacts derived from NNIs uses, a great variety of analytical procedures for the determination of their residues and their metabolites at trace level in environmental, biological and food samples have been reported. Due to the complexity of the samples, efficient sample pretreatment methods have been developed, which include mostly clean-up and preconcentration steps. On the other hand, among the analytical techniques used for their determination, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled to ultraviolet (UV) or mass spectrometry (MS) detection is the most widely used, although capillary electrophoresis (CE) has also been employed in the last years, considering some improvements in sensitivity when coupling with new MS detectors. In this review, we present a critical overview of analytical methods based on HPLC and CE reported in the last decade, discussing relevant and innovative sample treatments for the analysis of environmental, food and biological samples.

Analytical methods for pesticide residues determination in propolis and propolis-based products

As a result of massive bee deaths in recent years, beekeeping is raising concerns about the presence of pesticides in propolis which is considered as a safe product. The paper is focused on the analysis of bee propolis and propolis-based products using various chromatographic techniques using mass spectrometry detection predominantly. An important part of the work is an overview concerning methods of sample preparation, extraction, and purification of extracts, followed by separation and detection techniques. Positive findings of contaminants and their concentrations in propolis samples and propolis products were evaluated. Sorption based techniques such as matrix solid phase dispersion and solvent-based extraction techniques are frequently applied for propolis analysis in connection with chromatographic techniques. Liquid-based extractions, such as the QuEChERS extraction technique (Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged, Safe), combine extraction by solvent with several ways of extract cleaning using combinations of salts and sorbents, primary secondary amine, MgSO4, NaCl, graphitized carbon, EMR-lipid, florisil, or octadecylsilane-modified silica gel. Other extraction techniques were reviewed. The most significant problem to be considered in pesticides detection is the topic of matrix effects, which have to be solved for each sample analysis with special care.

Recyclable nitrogen-containing chitin-derived carbon microsphere as sorbent for neonicotinoid residues adsorption and analysis

Chitin-derived three-dimensional nanomaterials has tremendous potential in pesticide residue analysis as an attractive green substitute for toxic solvents. The work presented herein focuses on constructing the environmentally friendly nitrogen-containing chitin-derived carbon microspheres (N-CCMP) for the efficient adsorption of neonicotinoid pesticides (NPs) including acetamiprid, clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam. The N-CCMP displayed hierarchical porous structure, uniform size distribution, and excellent specific surface area of 680.8 m²  g^-1. The N-CCMP with N-heterocyclic ring structure and surface oxygen functional groups exhibited good affinity to NPs, which was beneficial for the rapid adsorption. Then, the N-CCMP were utilized as sorbent in extraction of NP residues. Under the optimum conditions, the relative recoveries in water and juice sample were in the range of 85 %-116 % and 74 %-108 %, with relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 0.1 %∼5.2 % and 0.7 %∼5.2 %, respectively. The extraction performance of N-CCMP were still over 80 % after 5 times of reuse.

Miniaturized Salting-Out Assisted Liquid-Liquid Extraction Combined with Disposable Pipette Extraction for Fast Sample Preparation of Neonicotinoid Pesticides in Bee Pollen

As the main source of nutrients for the important pollinator honeybee, bee pollen is crucial for the health of the honeybee and the agro-ecosystem. In the present study, a new sample preparation procedure has been developed for the determination of neonicotinoid pesticides in bee pollen. The neonicotinoid pesticides were extracted using miniaturized salting-out assisted liquid-liquid extraction (mini-SALLE), followed by disposable pipette extraction (DPX) for the clean-up of analytes. Effects of DPX parameters on the clean-up performance were systematically investigated, including sorbent types (PSA, C18, and silica gel), mass of sorbent, loading modes, and elution conditions. In addition, the clean-up effect of classical dispersive solid-phase extraction (d-SPE) was compared with that of the DPX method. Results indicated that PSA-based DPX showed excellent clean-up ability for the high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis of neonicotinoid pesticides in bee pollen. The proposed DPX method was fully validated and demonstrated to provide the advantage of simple and rapid clean-up with low consumption of solvent. This is the first report of DPX method applied in bee pollen matrix, and would be valuable for the development of a fast sample preparation method for this challenging and important matrix.