Rationale for the methods presented

The complexity of the metabolism of alachlor, acetochlor, butachlor, and propachlor has led to the development of degradation methods capable of hydrolyzing the crop and animal product residues to readily quantitated degradation products. Alachlor and acetochlor metabolites can be hydrolyzed to two major classes of hydrolysis products, one which contains aniline with unsubstituted alkyl groups at the 2- and 6-positions, and the other which contains aniline with hydroxylation in the ring-attached ethyl group. For alachlor and acetochlor, the nonhydroxylated metabolites are hydrolyzed in base to 2,6-diethylaniline (DBA) and 2-ethyl-6-methylaniline (EMA), respectively, and hy-droxylated metabolites are hydrolyzed in base to 2-ethyl-6-(l-hydroxyethyl)aniline (HEEA) and 2-(l-hydroxyethyl)-6-methylaniline (HEMA), respectively. Butachlor is metabolized primarily to nonhydroxylated metabolites, which are hydrolyzed to DEA. Propachlor metabolites are hydrolyzed mainly to A-isopropylaniline (NIPA). The base hydrolysis products for each parent herbicide are shown in Eigure 1. Limited interference studies have been conducted with other herbicides such as metolachlor to confirm that its residues are not hydrolyzed to the EMA under the conditions used to determine acetochlor residues. Nonhydroxylated metabolites of alachlor and butachlor are both hydrolyzed to the same aniline, DEA, but these herbicides are not used on the same crops. 

Residues of alachlor and acetochlor are determined by similar methods involving extraction, hydrolysis to the common aniline moieties, and separation and quantitation by reversed-phase FIPLC with electrochemical detection. The analytical method for acetochlor is included as a representative method for residue determination of alachlor and acetochlor in plant and animal commodities. Propachlor and butachlor residues, both parent and metabolite, are determined by similar analytical methods involving extraction, hydrolysis to common aniline moieties, and separation and quantitation by capillary GC. The analytical method for propachlor is included as a representative method. The details of the analytical methods for acetochlor and propachlor are presented in Sections 4 and 5, respectively. Confirmation of the residue in a crop or 

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