Abstract
Background: Fluopyram is a pesticide widely used in tomato and cucumber crops cultivation
to control fungal diseases that develop especially in environments with moderate temperatures
and high humidity, such as in a greenhouse. The pathway of fluopyram dissipation has been
monitored in cucumber and cherry tomato under greenhouse conditions.
Results: In the greenhouse trials, cherry tomato and cucumber were treated by irrigation
water with the commercial product at the manufacturer's recommended dose and double dose.
High-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) coupled to ultra-high performance liquid
chromatography (UHPLC) has been selected as technique to obtain the identification of
fluopyram and metabolites. The fate of fluopyram in greenhouse tomato and cucumber was
investigated over 44 days. The metabolic pathway of fluopyram was: in a first step there was
a primary transformation to fluopyram-7-hydroxy and fluopyram-8-hydroxy, isomeric
compounds, and in a second phase to fluopyram-benzamide and fluopyram-pyridylcarboxylic acid. The behavior of fluopyram does not fit any type of kinetic classical model of
degradation.
Conclusions: Greenhouse trials revealed that the fluopyram is a very persistent compound,
and their terminal residues do not exceed MRL at the end of the study.
Keywords: Fluopyram, Dissipation, Metabolites, Orbitrap, Greenhouse, Fungicide
