Development of a sensitive lateral flow immunoassay for the rapid detection of butralin in fruits

Butralin is a dinitrobenzene pesticide, has been widely used as a herbicide in many crops. Its high levels of residues threaten the ecological balance and human health. Therefore, establishment of a sensitive monoclonal antibody (mAb) for rapid detection of butralin residues is critical. In this study, special haptens were designed with good preservation of the characteristic structure of target compound. After mice immunization, a highly sensitive monoclonal antibody was produced. The half-maximum inhibitory concentration (IC50) was 1.936 ng/mL. And we applied it to develop a method of lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA), with vLOD value of the LFIA strip to be 10 ng/mL. In watermelon and pear samples, the cLOD values of the LFIA strip were 0.432 ng/mL and 0.426 ng/mL, respectively. The recoveries of the developed method ranged from 94.4% ± 2.1%–112.1% ± 3.4% and 89% ± 5.4%–103% ± 4.1% in watermelons and pears samples, with a CV of 2.9%–3.4% and 2.2%–5.2%, respectively. The results demonstrated that the developed method showed great prospect in the detection and monitoring of butralin in real food samples.