Evaluation of curryleaf Farmgate Samples for Pesticide Residues
Abstract
Seventy five curry leaf samples from curry leaf grown farms in Guntur, Ananthapur and Medak districts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, India were analysed for pesticide residues by LCMS/MS. Recovery studies were performed at 0.025 0.05 and 0.5 mg kg -1 fortification levels of each compound and the recoveries obtained ranged from 81.0 % to 119.0 % with relative standard deviations lower than 19.1 %.The method showed good linearity over the assessed range 0.01–1.0 mg kg-1with correlation coefficient of 0.999 and the detection and quantification limits for the pesticides studied varied from 0.001mg Kg-1and 0.05 mg Kg-1, respectively. The samples were detected with number of compounds of different groups dominated by Organo Phosphates (29.6%) followed by Synthetic Pyrethroids (20.69%), Fungicides (13.79%), Neo nicotinoids (10.34%), Herbicides(6.90%) and Carbamates(3.45%).The residue levels ranged from 37.78 mg Kg-1 to 0.05 mg Kg-1.It is therefore necessary to conduct extensive monitoring studies on pesticide usage pattern on curry leaf in different agro-climatic regions of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to know the exact status of pesticide contamination at farm gate level.
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Introduction
Curry leaf (Murraya koenigii ) is a leafy spice ,belongs to the Rutaceae family, is native to India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Andaman Islands. Its leaves are widely used in Indian cookery for flavouring foodstuffs. The major constituent responsible for the aroma and flavor is due to the presence of essential oils used in the soap industry.(Salikutty and Peter, 2008), it has anti carcinogenic properties due to the presence of carbazole alkaloids, (Khanum et al.,2000).Traditionally curry leaf is used in Ayurvedic medicines for treating many diseases. Oxidative stress related diseases are treated by extensive use of synthetic antioxidants which in turn causes unwanted side effects, hence there is increasing interest of using naturally occurring antioxidants (Maxwell, 1995).Curry leaves can be used as antioxidants as they contain the antioxidants tocopherol, b-carotene and lutein (Palaniswamy,2001). As a rich source of antioxidants curry leaf showed highest antioxidant and free radical scavenging activity (Mylarappa et al., 2008). The phyto chemical constituents of Murraya koenigii are also useful in waste water treatment to reduce the effect of harmful compounds (Sharmila et al.,2013). Curry leaf is now grown throughout India and attacked and damaged by number of pests and diseases at various stages of its growth. As a part of crop protection and for increasing crop yields, curry leaf farmers are using wide range of chemicals more frequently and at high doses. The use of these chemicals leaves residues in the plant parts consumed as food (Agnihotri 1999), enters food chain directly or indirectly. The residues present in high quantities will affect the health of the consumers. There is a change in usage pattern from Organochlorine (OC) to other group of pesticides like organo phosphates (OP) and synthetic pyrethroids (SP), Fungicides etc., studied by various workers by analyzing farm gate samples in India (Madan et al. 1996; Parihar et al. 1997). European union, the major importers of curry leaf have sent a red alert message that the residues in curry leaves are much more than the permissible limits, which created a panic among the exporters. Since there is a need to analyse the pesticides used by farmers at farm gate and to suggest them the proper dosages, waiting periods etc. these studies were conducted to know the type of pesticides used by the farmers and their residues in samples at farmgat.
