Assessment of Pesticides Contents of Green Leafy Vegetables

Vegetables are rich sources of vitamins, minerals, and fibers, and have beneficial antioxidative effects. Ingestion of vegetables containing pesticides is one of the main routes through which these enter the human body. Slowly released into the body, however, pesticides can cause an array of diseases. In this study we investigated the concentrations of some pesticides in the most frequently consumed vegetables including Palak, Coriander, Red vegetable & Cauliflower in various sites in Rajgarh Tehsil, India. The quantification was carried out using RP-HPLC for unprocessed (fresh) and processed (washed, washed and cooked) vegetable samples. The extraction was carried out with benzene. It was found that unprocessed some vegetables contains pesticides residue which is slightly more than the tolerance limit, while the processed sample contains residue within the tolerance limit. The washed samples showed 30-40 % reduction while the cooked samples shows 50-60 % reduction compared to the unprocessed samples. Hence it can be concluded that in case of greens, it should be washed three times with ordinary water and then cooked so that the pesticide residue is very much reduced and it will be well within the tolerance limit as specified. The data obtained was compared with that of a referenced pesticide by matching molecular weight to a library of known pesticides. © 2016 Universal Research Publications. All rights reserved