Stereoselective metabolism of fipronil in water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes)

The enantioselective metabolism of racemic fipronil in water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) had been investigated. In this study, the degradation data and the enantiomer fraction (EF) were determined by chiral high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with a column cellulose-tri-(3, 5-dimethylphe-nylcarbamate)-based chiral stationary phase (CDMPC-CSP). During the uptake phase, the EF value of plant sample increased from 0.50 at 1st day to 0.72 at 63rd day, while it was almost unchanged in water. For the depuration phase, the S- and R-enantiomer of fipronil in water hyacinth plants were degraded 92.22% and 82.07% after 17 days, respectively. The process of the degradation of the two enantiomers was followed first-order kinetics (R² ? 0.94). Stereoselective behavior was observed in both accumulation and degradation process. In this study, fipronil-sulfone and fipronil-sulfide, the metabolites of fipronil, were detected by GC-MS to show the main metabolic pathway of fipronil in water hyacinth.