Multi-residue Analysis of 18 Organochlorine Pesticides in 10 Traditional Chinese Medicines by Gas Chromatography (GC)

Abstract

A rapid and simple method for the simultaneous analysis of 18 pesticides (α-(C 6 H 6 Cl 6 )-Benzene hexachloride, β-BHC, γ-BHC, δ-BHC, heptachlor, heptachlor epoxide, tecnazene, pentachloronitrobenzene (PCNB), hexachlorobenzene, aldrin, methyl pentachlorophenyl sulphide (MPCPS), α-endosulfan, trans-chlorodane, cis-chlorodane, p,p -(C 14 H 8 Cl 4 )-Dichlorodiphenyl dichloroethylene, o,p -(C 14 H 9 Cl 5 )-Dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane, p,p -(C 14 H 10 Cl 4 )-Dichlorodiphenyl dichloeoethane, p,p -DDT) by gas chromatography (GC) in 10 Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCMs) has been developed. The limit of detection was found to be 1.2 × 10 −13 to 9.0 × 10 −13 g with the recoveries ranging from 72.9 to 114.5% and Relative Standard Deviation being less than 17.5%. In addition, the assay was applied to monitor the residues in 10 TCMs, amongst which at least one of the above pesticides were found in 67 samples. The results showed that α-BHC was the most frequently detected with a presence of 44.6% in the tested samples, whilst heptachlor epoxide, trans-chlorodane, cischlorodane and p,p -DDD were not detected at all. Nonetheless, none of pesticides in all samples appeared to exceed the maximum residue limits (MRLs) seen in the Chinese regulations.

Pesticide Residues in Natural Products with Pharmaceutical Use: Occurrence, Analytical Advances and Perspectives

“…However, the main fact can be divided into (i) findings are still OCs and OPs insecticides and (ii) the occurrence of a growing amount of pesticides, mainly fungicides, contained in medicinal products which enlarge the target list of pesticides to search for. Most studies still revealed the high incidence of OCs pesticides in several herbal drugs worldwide (Abhilash & Singh, 2008, Jeon et al, 2007, Leung et al, 2005, Mishra et al, 2007, Sun et al, 2007, Zuin et al, 2003. The occurrence of banned OCs is accentuated when determining pesticide occurrence in commodities based on roots principally due to the cultivation in contaminated soils with several decades of agricultural use (Hayward & Wong, 2009, Leung et al, 2005, Wu et al, 2011.…”

Microbial remediation of a pentachloronitrobenzene-contaminated soil under Panax notoginseng: A field experiment

“…The soil samples were freeze-dried and sieved through a 0.25-mm mesh. Extraction of PCNB was performed according the methods described by Sun et al (2007) and . Five grams of soil was weighed into a 60-mL glass centrifugal tube with 20 mL of a methylene chloride/hexane solution (volume:volume, 1:1) and soaked overnight.…”

Detection of pesticides in popular medicinal herbs: a modified QuEChERS and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry based approach

“…Reports are available for the presence of pesticides in herbal drugs worldwide (Tripathy et al 2015). Though most of the earlier studies focus on the determination of organochlorine pesticides (s) in medicinal herbs (Sun et al 2007), but recently workers have reported multi pesticide residues (including fungicides, herbicides) in medicinal herbs (Tong et al 2014). Because the growing demand of medicinal herbs requires increased agricultural production and for sustained and extensive agricultural practices needs the use of chemicals including fertilizers and number of pesticides.…”