Abstract: The study was aimed to assess the level of pesticide residues in tomatoes and cucumber vegetables grown in greenhouse farms in Khartoum State (Sudan) and compare them with the maximum residue limits set by Codex Alimentarius. A total of 19 samples of cucumbers (14) and tomatoes fruits (5) were randomly collected from 14 greenhouse farms under study. The levels of pesticide residues were determined by gas chromatography equipped with a flame ionization detector (GC-FID). The results indicated that 94.7% of the samples were contaminated by diazinon, malathion, chlorpyrifos, ethephon, prefenofos and oxyfluorfen. The residues measured in cucumber fruits samples ranged from 0.05 to 167.19 mg kg -1, and that measured in tomato fruit ranged from 2.55 to 136.87 mg kg -1, and all of them were above maximum residue limits (MRLs) set by Codex Alimentarius. The highest level of diazinon residues was detected in cucumber samples collected from the greenhouse farms MB (25.68 mg kg -1), Eltiseen (24.63 mg kg -1), and Elzawaya (10.58 mg kg -1) were exceeded the MRLs of cucumber (0.1 mg kg -1) by 257, 246 and 106 folds, respectively. However the corresponding values of malathion resides that detected in tomato fruits samples collected from the farms YAY (39.7 mg kg -1), MB (9.45mg kg -1 ), Eltiseen (8.46 mg kg -1) and Elzawaya (8.28 mg kg -1) were also exceeded the MRLs of tomato fruits (0.1 mg kg -1) by 79, 47, 42 and 41 folds, respectively. These high levels of pesticide residues detected in both vegetables raise a great public health concern as they can pose serious adverse effects to consumers.
Keywords: Tomato fruits, Cucumbers, Pesticide residue, Greenhouse, Khartoum State.
Title: Pesticide Residues Detected on Tomato and Cucumber Fruits Grown in Greenhouse farms in Khartoum State, Sudan
Author: Awad O. Mohamed, Adam A. Mater, Ahmed M.A. Hammad, Abd Elaziz S.A. Ishag , Elsadig Mahjoob El Tayeb, Asia Azrag Dahab
International Journal of Life Sciences Research
ISSN 2348-313X (Print), ISSN 2348-3148 (online)
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