Tube-Immunoassay for Rapid Detection of Carbaryl Residues in Agricultural Products

An antibody-based rapid, quantitative, and qualitative tube enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (tube-ELISA) was developed and used to determine carbaryl (1-naphthyl methylcarbamate) residues in agricultural products (apple, Chinese cabbage, rice, and barley). The tube-ELISA is a competitive immunoassay in which the antibody is coated in the polystyrene tube, with a dynamic range between 0.7 and 46.3 μg kg^?1. Carbaryl was extracted from each agricultural sample by hand-shaking with methanol and examined for application to on-site analysis. After the liquid extraction, the sample extracts diluted with buffer were analyzed by rapid tube-ELISA directly. The overall test time was around 15–30 min, including sample preparation and assay performance. The results obtained from tube-ELISA correlated well with high-performance liquid chromatography (R ² > 0.9). The study shows that tube-ELISA is useful as a quality control tool and can be used to quantitatively detect carbaryl as well.