Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 2014-07-01

Investigation on diazinon and oxydemeton-methyl residues in cucumbers grown in Kerman greenhouses.

Fatemeh Ganjeizadeh Rohani, Vahideh Mahdavi, M Mehdi Aminaei

Index: Environ. Monit. Assess. 186(7) , 3995-9, (2014)

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Abstract

Pesticides are considered as the most polluting substances. The residue of pesticides in agricultural crops, especially in greenhouse harvests, has been reported critical. Cucumber, considered as a vegetable, is an agricultural product which is commonly found in the Iranian food basket. The current study aims to assess the level of diazinon and oxydemeton-methyl existing in cucumbers sampled from Kerman greenhouses. The pesticide residue was extracted by acetone and dichloromethane. The extracts were cleaned up according to the solid-phase extraction method. The pesticide residues were then determined by capillary gas chromatography with nitrogen-phosphorus detection. The recoveries were 83 and 85 %, the limit of detection was 0.028 and 0.034 mg/kg, and the limits of qualification were 0.093 and 0.113 mg/kg for diazinon and oxydemeton-methyl in cucumber samples, respectively. The median of diazinon residue was detected 0.582 mg/kg, which was 11.64 times the national maximum residue limit (MRL) (0.05 mg/kg), and the median for oxydemeton-methyl was 1.910 mg/kg, being 1.91 times the MRL (1 mg/kg).