Screening and monitoring of herbicides behaviour in soils by enzyme immunoassays

A simplified approach to screen cropland for residues of atrazine and its main metabolite deethylated atrazine has been presented. A time-saving and cost-effective screening method has been developed using an aqueous extraction step. The measurement of the extracts was done by immunoassay technique (ELISA). Antibodies against atrazine and deethylated atrazine were used in the study. The overall detection limit of the analysis of atrazine residues in soil is 1 μg kg'¹ and 2 μg kg“¹for its deethylated metabolite, respectively. It is shown that this approach yields adequate information to judge the ground-water hazard potential of treated fields.