Enantiomeric separation of malathion and malaoxon and the chiral residue analysis in food and environmental matrix.

This study focuses on enantiomeric separation of malathion and malaoxon and the chiral residue analysis in food and environmental matrix.. The research employs high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) techniques to address analytical challenges in the environmental field. Malathion is a widely used chiral phosphorus insecticide, which has a more toxic chiral metabolite malaoxon. In this work, the enantiomers of malathion and malaoxon were separated by high-performance liquid chromatography-mass/mass (HPLC-MS/MS) with chiral columns using acetonitrile/water or methanol/water as mobile phase, and the chromatographic conditions were optimized. Based on... Research Background and Significance Malathion is a widely used organophosphorus insecticide characterized by its chiral nature, resulting in stereoisomers with different biological activities. Its metabolite, malaoxon, exhibits even greater toxicity, which raises significant concerns regarding environmental safety and food contamination. The enantiomeric composition of these compounds affects their degradation, toxicity, and environmental fate, making chiral analysis essential for accurate risk assessment and regulatory compliance. Traditional achiral analytical methods fail to distinguish between these enantiomers, potentially underestimating toxicological impacts. Therefore, developing robust, sensitive, and selective chromatographic methods capable of resolving malathion and malaoxon enantiomers in complex matrices such as food and environmental samples is critical. This study addresses this gap by employing high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) and chiral stationary phases to achieve enantioselective separation and quantification of these insecticides in real-w