Removal of Organophosphorus (OP) Pesticide Residues from Vegetables Using Washing Solutions and Boiling

In a monitoring study, the effects of household processing on removal of organophosphate residues (malathion, fenitrothion, formothion, parathion, methyl parathion and chlorpyriphos) in tomato, bean, okra, eggplant, cauliflower and capsicum were studied. The processes included washing separately with (water, 0.9 % NaCl, 0.1 % NaHCO3, and 0.1 % acetic acid, 0.001 % KMnO4, 0.1 % ascorbic acid, 0.1 % malic acid and 0.1 % oxalic acid and 2 % aqueous solution of raw Spondias pinnata (SP)) and boiling. Organophosphorous (OP) residues were estimated (for real market samples and spiked samples) using multi residue analytical technique employing with capillary gas chromatograph with mass spectrometry detector (GCMSD). In all of the vegetables, washing with different household chemicals reduced the residues by 20-89 % and boiling reduced the residues by 52-100 %. Boiling of vegetables was found to be more effective than washing in dislodging the residues.