Multi pesticide residue analysis in tobacco by GCMS/MS using QuEChERS as an extraction method

Introduction

India is the world’s second largest producer (after China) and consumer (after Brazil) of tobacco with nearly $ 1001.54 million revenue generated annually from its export. In countries like India, with tropical-humid climate, the incidences of insect attacks and disease infestations are frequent and application of pesticides for their management is almost obligatory. Like any other crop, tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum Linn.), one of the world’s leading high-value crops, is also prone to pest attacks, and the farmers do apply various pesticides as a control measure. The residues of pesticides applied on tobacco during its cultivation may remain in the leaves at harvest that may even sustain post harvest processing treatments and could appear in the final product. Thus, monitoring of pesticide residues in tobacco is an important issue of critical concern from public health and safety point of view demanding implementation of stringent regulatory policies. To protect the consumers by controlling pesticide residue levels in tobacco, the Guidance Residue Levels (GRL) of 118 pesticides have been issued by the Agro-Chemical Advisory Committee (ACAC) of the Cooperation Center for Scientific Research Relative to Tobacco (CORESTA). Tobacco is a complex matrix and hence requires selective extraction and extensive cleanup such as QuEChERS (Quick Easy Cheap Effective Rugged Safe) to ensure trace level detection with adequate precision and accuracy. The objective of the present study was to develop an effective, sensitive and economical multi-pesticide residue analysis method for 203 pesticides in tobacco.

December 18, 2019 GMT