Similar articles

Abstract: The widespread use of organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) poses a great threat to human health and has made the detection of OP residues in food an important task, especially in view of the fact that easy and rapid detection methods are needed. Because OPs have inhibitory effects on the activity of α;-Naphthyl acetate esterase (ANAE) in plants, in this work we evaluated the possibility of detecting OPs in vegetables with ANAE extracted from commercial flour. The limits of detection (LODs) obtained for methamidophos, dichlorvos, phoxim, dimethoate, and malathion in lettuce samples with crude ANAE were 0.17, 0.11, 0.11, 0.96, and 1.70 mg/kg, respectively. Based on the maximum residue limits (MRLs) for OPs in food stipulated by Chinese laws which are 0.05, 0.20, 0.05, 1.00, and 8.00 mg/kg for methamidophos, dichlorvos, phoxim, dimethoate, and malathion, respectively, the esterase inhibition method with crude ANAE had sufficient sensitivity to detect the residues of dichlorvos, dimethoate, and malathion in lettuce, but it could not be used to guarantee the safety of the same samples if methamidophos or phoxim residue was present. The sensitivity of the method was improved by the use of esterase purified by ammonium sulfate salting-out. The LODs obtained for methamidophos and phoxim with purified esterase were lower than the MRLs for these OPs in food. This is a very promising method for the detection of OP residues in vegetables using crude or purified esterase because of its cheapness, sensitivity, and convenience.

[1]Anastassiades, M., Lehotay, S.J., Stajnbaher, D., Schenck, F.J., 2003. Fast and easy multiresidue method employing acetonitrile extraction/partitioning and “dispersive solid-phase extraction” for the determination of pesticide residues in produce. J. AOAC Int., 86(2):412-431.

[2]Darko, G., Akoto, O., 2008. Dietary intake of organophosphorus pesticide residues through vegetables from Kumasi, Ghana. Food Chem. Toxicol., 46(12):3703-3706.

[3]de Silva, H.J., Samarawickrema, N.A., Wickremasinghe, A.R., 2006. Toxicity due to organophosphorus compounds: what about chronic exposure? Trans. R. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg., 100(9):803-806.

[4]Ellman, G.L., Courtney, K.D., Andres, V., Featherstone, R.M., 1961. A new and rapid colorimetric determination of acetylcholinesterase activity. Biochem. Pharmacol., 7(2):88-95.

[5]GB/T 18630-2002. Method for Simple Determination of Organophosphorus and Carbamate Pesticide Residues in Vegetables—Enzyme Inhibition Method. General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, China.

[6]GB 2763-2005. Maximum Residue Limits for Pesticides in Food. Ministry of Health of the People’s Republic of China, Standardization Administration, China.

[7]Hamscher, G., Priess, B., Nau, H., 2007. Determination of phoxim residues in eggs by using high-performance liquid chromatography diode array detection after treatment of stocked housing facilities for the poultry red mite (Dermanyssus gallinae). Anal. Chim. Acta, 586(1-2):330-335.

[8]Huang, Z.Y., Yuan, Y., Lv, Y.Z., 2003. Comparison of inhibiting ache and plant-esterase activity for organophosphorus pesticide residues in vegetables. Food Sci., 24(8):135-137 (in Chinese).

[9]Jeanty, G., Marty, J.L., 1998. Detection of paraoxon by continuous flow system based enzyme sensor. Biosens. Bioelectron., 13(2):213-218.

[10]Li, J.K., Zhou,Y.L., Wen,Y.X., Wang, J.H., Hu, Q.H., 2009. Studies on the purification and characterization of soybean esterase, and its sensitivity to organophosphate and carbamate pesticides. Agric. Sci. China, 8(4):455-463.

[11]Li, X., Wang, Y., Zhang, J., Mang, Y., Wang, S., 2008. Purification and characterization of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) from musca domestica. Chin. J. Anal. Lab., 27(3):87-90 (in Chinese).

[12]Lv, Z.L., Gao, L.L., Gao, H.B., Hou, Z.X., Zhang, B.L., 2009. Improved determination of phoxim residue in stored wheat by HPLC with DAD. J. Food Sci., 74(5):37-41.

[13]Marston, A., Kissling, J., Hostettmann, K., 2002. A rapid TLC bioautographic method for the detection of acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase inhibitors in plants. Phytochem. Anal., 13(1):51-54.

[14]Meng, L., Weng, X., Liu, C.J., 2006. Current status of research on using plant esterases for rapid determination of organophosphate pesticide residues. Agrochemicals, 45(5):306-308 (in Chinese).

[15]Rastrelli, L., Totaro, K., Simone, F.D., 2002. Determination of organophosphorus pesticide residues in Cilento (Campania, Italy) virgin olive oil by capillary gas chromatography. Food Chem., 79(3):303-305.

[16]Schulze, H., Schmid, R.D., Bachmann, T.T., 2002. Rapid detection of neurotoxic insecticides in food using disposable acetylcholinesterase-biosensors and simple solvent extraction. Anal. Bioanal. Chem., 372(2):268-272.

[17]Shi, M.A., Yuan, J.Z., Wu, J., Zhuang, P.J., Tang, Z.H., 2008. Studies on the kinetics of acetylcholinesterase in the resisiant and susceptible strains of housefly (Musca domestica). Insect Sci., 8(1):30-38.

[18]Silva Filho, M.V., Oliveira, M.M., Salles, J.B., Bastos, V.L., Cassano, V.P., Bastos, J.C., 2004. Methyl-paraoxon comparative inhibition kinetics for acetylcholinesterases from brain of neotropical fishes. Toxicol. Lett., 153(2):247-254.

[19]Uygun, U., Ozkara, R., Ozbey, A., Koksel, H., 2007. Residue levels of malathion and fenitrothion and their metabolites in postharvest treated barley during storage and malting. Food Chem., 100(3):1165-1169.

[20]Wang, L.G., Liang, Y.C., Jiang, X., 2008. Analysis of eight organophosphorus pesticide residues in fresh vegetables retailed in agricultural product markets of Nanjing, China. Bull. Environ. Contam. Toxicol., 81(4):377-382.

[21]Zhao, J.H., Zhao, D.G., 2009. Transient expression of organophosphorus hydrolase to enhance the degrading activity of tomato fruit on coumaphos. J. Zhejiang Univ.-Sci. B (Biomed. & Biotechnol.), 10(2):142-146.