Abstract:
Nowadays, organophosphorus pesticides (OPPs) are one class of pesticides
widely used as insecticides in the agricultural field for pest control during the whole
growth process of plants. They have been used to replace organochlorine pesticides
due to their high effectiveness, relatively low price and especially low environmental
persistence. However, these pesticides present a high toxicity on humans because they
act as an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, leading to the interruption of the nervous
system. Acute toxicity of the inhibition of acetyl cholinesterase causes respiratory,
myocardial, and neuromuscular transmission impairment. In some cases, they may
result in acute pneumonary edema and be fatal.
The main OPPs which are diazinon, fenitrothion, malathion, chlorpyrifos and
triazophos, were focused on in this study. An analytical method was developed for
determining OPPs in vegetable samples (cabbage, cucumber and tomato) and also for
investigating the degradation of OPPs in water using gas chromatography with flame
photometric detection (GC-FPD). Then, the analytes was successfully separated
within 10 minute on an HP-5 (5% methyl phenyl silicone) column. Detection limits of
all analytes were in the range of 0.04 - 0.5 μgmL-1. The identity of the pesticides was
confirmed by GC-MS using selected ion monitoring mode. The preparation of
cabbage samples included extraction with the mixture of ethyl acetate and hexane (1:1
v/v) and subsequently cleaned up by silica gel-solid phase extraction (silica gel-SPE).
This analytical method was applied to determine pesticide contamination in the other
vegetable samples, i.e., cucumber and tomato. The method was validated by spiking
OPP standard in vegetable samples at the concentration of 0.02 - 1.00 mgkg-1. The
average recoveries of all analytes were in the range of 70 - 95%, 72 - 98% and 68 -
107% for cabbage, cucumber and tomato, respectively. The degradation of OPPs in
water found that hydrolysis was the major process and there was no effect of sunlight
on the hydrolytic degradation of OPPs in water. In this study, octadecyl-solid phase
extraction (C18-SPE) was used for extraction and preconcentration the OPP analytes
from a water sample. Breakthrough volume of C18-SPE was 250 mL, after which the
water loading should be less than this value. The average recoveries of all analytes
were in the range of 83 - 132%.