Monitoring and Reducing the Residues of Some Pesticides in Cabbage Leaves Collected from Al-Hal Market in Damascus in 2021

Abstract

Current study was conducted for detection of the residues of four pesticides: (Cypermethrin, Deltamethrin) belonging to the group of organic pyrethroid pesticides and (Chlorpyrifos and Dimethoate) belonging to the group of organophosphorous pesticides to study their residues in cabbage leaves collected from Al-Hal Market in Zablatani- Damascus, Syria, during November and December 2021. Residues were analyzed by High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled to UV detector and GC-MAs. Results showed that samples were contaminated with the four studied pesticides at different concentrations. The concentrations of Dimethoate and Chlorpyrifos pesticides residues were higher than the upper maximum residual limits of European union (MRL-Eu) in 16.67 and 50%, respectively in the total samples. The most frequent pesticide in analyzed

samples was Dimethoate, followed by Cypermethrin and Deltamethrin.

Also, current work was to evaluate the effects of household processing, such as washing with tap water with hand rubbing for 5 min, soaking in 2% salt solution for 10 min, soaking in 2% acetic acid solution for 10 min, and boiling for 5 min to decontaminate the studied pesticides residues in Cabbage leaves. Result showed that household processing reduced the studied pesticides in Cabbage leaves, at different rates, according to the composition and physiochemical properties of pesticide in Cabbage leaves. However, household processing was removed Chlorpyrifos residue effectively compared with the other pesticides. In addition, the soaking in salt solution and soaking in acetic acid solution were the most effective in decontaminate residues pesticides compared with the other treatments.