Modern analytical workflows demand speed, reproducibility, and precision—qualities essential for laboratories analyzing food, environmental, and pharmaceutical samples. By integrating advanced extraction with reliable evaporation, labs can achieve substantial improvements in efficiency and results. The combination of the CEM EDGE Automated Solvent Extraction System and Organomation nitrogen blowdown evaporators offers a seamless and highly effective approach to challenging sample preparation.
- Versatile Applications: The EDGE system handles a broad range of matrices, from food and soils to environmental contaminants, using pressurized solvent extraction to achieve rapid results.
- Automation & Consistency: With autosampling, pre-programmed methods, and integrated Q-Disc® filtration, the EDGE system minimizes manual steps, ensuring reproducibility.
- High-Quality Extracts: Filtration is built into the process, delivering extracts ready for further processing or direct analysis, as suited to each lab's requirements.
While the EDGE system generates clean extracts, high-sensitivity analyses or instrument-specific conditions may require further concentration. Organomation's nitrogen blowdown evaporators are designed for this crucial step:
- Controlled Solvent Evaporation: Gentle nitrogen gas reduces extract volume precisely, minimizing risk of analyte loss.
- Efficiency for Batch Processing: Multiple samples can be processed in parallel, supporting high-throughput labs.
- Seamless Compatibility: EDGE extracts fit directly into standard Organomation systems, streamlining the hand-off between extraction and concentration.
A leading food testing laboratory faced the challenge of efficiently extracting and concentrating pesticide residues from certified reference strawberries. The goal was to maximize throughput while maintaining data integrity and meeting stringent regulatory requirements for sensitivity and reproducibility.
- Conventional QuEChERS methods required multiple manual steps, including extraction, clean-up, and filtration, with total extraction time between 20 and 60 minutes per sample.
- Manual Processing Challenges: The QuEChERS process is a manual, multistep process that can be time consuming and fraught with error, with the complexity further exacerbated by the numerous different QuEChERS kits available for various food types.
- Single-Step Extraction and Clean-Up: The EDGE system enabled complete extraction and filtration of pesticides from strawberry samples in 7–8 minutes per batch, including sample rinsing, filtration, and system washing in a single automated cycle.
- Enhanced Sample Handling: The EDGE automated extraction system performs sample extraction and clean-up in a single cycle that includes sample rinsing, filtration, and system washing. The use of Q-Matrix Hydra further simplified the extraction process by removing water from wet samples in-situ, eliminating additional sample handling requirements.
- Improved Sample Size Flexibility: The addition of agitation on the EDGE allowed for extraction of larger samples and reduced solvent usage compared to methods without agitation.
- Post-Extraction Processing: Following extraction, the extract was transferred to an Organomation N-EVAP Nitrogen Evaporator for evaporation to less than 5 mL, then diluted to 5 mL with acetonitrile containing 1% acetic acid.
- Controlled Volume Reduction: The Organomation system provided precise concentration capabilities essential for achieving the required detection limits for trace pesticide analysis.
- Comparable Recovery Performance: The EDGE efficiently extracted pesticides from strawberry certified reference materials with recoveries comparable to the traditional QuEChERS process. This validation confirmed that the EDGE could serve as a suitable alternative method for matrices where QuEChERS was specifically developed.
- Significant Time Savings: A minimum of 60% time savings was realized when compared to the QuEChERS method, leading to increased sample throughput and overall laboratory productivity.
- Reduced Solvent Consumption: A 20% solvent savings was achieved through the addition of agitation in the EDGE method.
- Enhanced Sample Confidence: The increase in sample size capability provided greater confidence in sample homogeneity with respect to the total batch sampled.
The extracted samples underwent rigorous analysis using Waters Acquity UPLC system with Xevo TQD triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. Multiple pesticides were successfully quantified using MRM transitions, with each sample analyzed in triplicate to ensure data reliability. The comparable recoveries obtained between EDGE and QuEChERS extractions validated the effectiveness of the integrated approach.
- Automated Efficiency: The EDGE offers the benefit of simplified automated extraction with comparable recoveries to traditional methods, reducing manual intervention and associated errors.
- Broad Applicability: The same method is applicable for all food samples, both wet and dry, and covers a wide range of pesticides.
- Temperature Flexibility: For heat-labile pesticides where temperature is a concern, room temperature extraction can be performed on the EDGE.
- Ideal for Testing Laboratories: The EDGE, with its efficient pesticide extraction method, is ideal for testing laboratories seeking repeatable results for all food samples using one simple automated method.
1. Sample Preparation: Strawberry certified reference material combined with Q-Matrix Hydra in Q-Cup with Q-Disc sandwich configuration
2. Automated Extraction: 7-8 minute extraction cycle including rinsing, filtration, and system washing
3. Concentration: Nitrogen evaporation using Organomation N-EVAP to achieve target volume
4. Analysis: Direct injection into LC-MS/MS for pesticide quantification
The integration of the CEM EDGE extraction system with Organomation nitrogen evaporators represents a validated advancement in food contaminant testing, as demonstrated by the strawberry pesticide residue workflow. This approach delivers automated efficiency, substantial time savings, and solvent conservation while maintaining analytical performance comparable to established QuEChERS methodology. Laboratories benefit from reduced manual intervention, enhanced throughput, and consistent reproducibility—meeting the demanding requirements of modern analytical science in regulated food testing environments.
This workflow and case study are based on published CEM applications demonstrating the integration of automated extraction and evaporation technologies for improved sample preparation in food testing laboratories.