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A headspace single-drop microextraction (HS-SDME) procedure is optimized for the analysis of organochlorine and organophosphorous pesticide residues in food matrices, namely cucumbers and strawberries by gas chromatography with an electron capture detector. The parameters affecting the HS-SDME performance, such as selection of the extraction solvent, solvent drop volume, extraction time, temperature, stirring rate, and ionic strength, were studied and optimized. Extraction was achieved by exposing 1.5 microL toluene drop to the headspace of a 5 mL aqueous solution in a 15-mL vial and stirred at 800 rpm. The analytical parameters, such as linearity, correlation coefficients, precision, limits of detection (LOD), limits of quantification (LOQ), and recovery, were compared with those obtained from headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and solid-phase extraction. The mean recoveries for all three methods were all above 70% and below 104%. HS-SPME was the best method with the lowest LOD and LOQ values. Overall, the proposed HS-SDME method is acceptable in the analysis of pesticide residues in food matrices.

Metallic nanoparticles (MNPs) are commonly incorporated in products found in households, industries, and agriculture. The presence of MNPs in the aquatic environment causes damage to living organisms and pollutes the water body rendering it harmful for human consumption. Several studies have been made on the toxicity of MNPs toward microalgae. Most of these studies reported changes in the cellular structure, growth rate, pigments, proteins, and enzymatic activity of microalgae. This review paper focuses on the toxic effects of titanium, zinc, and silver nanoparticles on microalgae in the aquatic environment. A better understanding of the behavior of MNPs in the ecosystem will allow scientists to produce environmentally safe MNPs.

Abstract. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nation (FAO), there is a demand of increasing 70 % of food production to sustain 2.3 billion people by the year of 2050. This shows the need of rapid growth of agriculture applications to improve the food production worldwide. It's an undeniable truth that pesticides induced major role in the economic production. Notwithstanding the beneficial effects of pesticides, the negative impacts on human health, environment quality have well documented worldwide and raise the concerns to the health hazard globally. Pesticides need to be closely regulated for quality control monitoring on fruits, vegetables and water resources for safety purposes. European Regulation 396/2005 and amendments were established on the amount of maximum quantities of pesticide residues permitted in products of animal or vegetable for human or animal consumption. Phytoremediation technology using aquatic plants acts as cost effective alternative over conventional technologies to remove harmful heavy metals, organic and inorganic pollutants from various water bodies. To best of our knowledge, there is little or no data are available on the effectiveness of aquatic plants for the phytoremediation of pesticides. Therefore, in this review paper, the main focus is to study the effectiveness of aquatic plant factors in removal of pesticides from water sources and to provide insight for the future development.

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