A large number of pesticides are often used in agricultural practices to improve crop production.
In agriculture, pesticides are used to combat, prevent,or repel various plant pests. However, they represent a risk to human health, despite their low concentrations.
Therefore, a group of researchers from the UNLP developed an agar gel with silver nanoparticles. This substance detects the presence of pesticides on the peels of different fruits and vegetables, even in small doses.
Pesticides were designed to be toxic to the species to be eliminated. However, they are a potential risk to the environment and the species living in it, including humans.
In this regard, Dr. Lorena Picone, indicates that it is necessary to develop new methodologies to improve these substances that are present in food. Decreasing detection limits as well as sample pretreatments.
Pesticide detection method
The method consists of applying the gel to food scraps and then extracting it to determine the amounts of pesticides. These gels are taken to a laboratory and a technique called microRaman spectroscopy is used to determine the type and quantity.
This method was tested on various fruits and vegetables, such as apple, tomato, eggplant, strawberry, bell pepper, and cherry. As indicated above, the amount of pesticide detected was very low. For apple peel, for example, 2 pg/cm2 of peel was detected for the pesticide thiram. This is equivalent to 0.000000000002 g per cm2 of peel. However, it is important to remember that some foods are best eaten with the peel on because of the fiber they provide to the body.
The advantage of this method is that it is invasive and can be used in-situ since gel samples can be taken wherever necessary. They can then be taken to the laboratory. It can also be used to detect other substances of interest on different surfaces, such as pigmentation in works of art.
Lastly, the Universidad Internacional Iberoamericana (International Iberoamerican University) (UNIB), offers the Master in Environmental Management and Audits. Source: Novel method developed to detect pesticide residues in fruit and vegetable peels
