Pesticide Residues in Natural Products with Pharmaceutical Use: Occurrence, Analytical Advances and Perspectives

A pharmaceutical raw material is every active or inactive substance used in the manufacturing process of a pharmaceutical dosage form. According to their function in the medicament, they could be classified into two groups: (i) active ingredients with pharmacological activity; and (ii) excipients which allow the active ingredients dosification and makes suitable the route of administration (de la Rosa et al., 1995). In spite of the high number of synthetically produced pharmaceuticals and the progress in biotechnology and gene engineering, there are a number of raw materials of natural origin, which are still used for manufacturing active pharmaceutical products (Balandrin et al., 1985). Quality is a mandatory requirement in the materials to accomplish the Pharmaceutical ‘Good Manufacturing Practices’. Nowadays, the presence of pesticides in animal and vegetal commodities is a topic of public concern for the potential health hazards derived from them (WHO, 1998). The presence of pesticide residues in animal or vegetal raw materials can be originated in agricultural practices, environmental contamination or cross contamination. For example, oils rendered from whole fish and from fish offal represent an important dietary component in many areas of the world. In addition, fish oils are extensively used as ingredients in food and in dietary supplements for their therapeutic benefits in the treatment of cardiovascular, arthritic and dermatological diseases. Fish oils, however, are susceptible to contamination with lipophilic organic chemicals, in particular many organochlorine chemicals are now ubiquitous contaminants of marine ecosystems, but there is no specification on the pesticide residue allowed (Jacobs et al., 1997). The number of trace pollutants to be monitored is continually growing and the levels at which these compounds need to be determined are becoming lower. Multi-residue methods (MRMs) are the preferred strategy over single analyte or class residue methods (SRMs). Analytical features of the MRMs allow to cover a large range of pesticides in a single analysis. Many MRMs employing different extraction and clean-up techniques and a variety