Determination of Atrazine in Soil Samples by ELISA Using Polyclonal and Monoclonal Antibodies

Atrazine concentrations were measured by polyclonal antibody (PAb) and monoclonal antibody (MAb) ELISAs in methanolic extracts of both laboratory-fortified and field samples collected from 12 maize fields. Analysis of 91 soil samples collected in the Southern Moravian region demonstrated that the ELISAs were a reliable screening tool for the determination of atrazine in soil matrices. A good correlation of results obtained by ELISAs and gas chromatography within the concentration range of 0-380 mu g kg-1 was found in the samples collected from two maize fields ( r PAb ELISA-GC) = 0.97 , n = 21 ; r (MAb ELISAGC) = 0.94 , n = 21 ]. A somewhat lower correlation was found for the samples collected from ten additional fields within the concentration range of 0-390 mu g kg-1 [r (PAb ELISAGC) = 0.91 , n = 15 ; r (MAb ELISA-GC) = 0.87 , n = 15)]. The results obtained by PAb and MAb ELISAs showed no significant difference although the sensitivity of the PAb method was by one order of magnitude higher than that based on MAb.