Assessing the Distribution of Permethrin Residue in Treated Cereal Grains Using Cold Solvent Extraction Coupled with Uv-visible Spectrophotometry

The residual levels of permethrin, a pyrethroid insecticide, in two different parts of treated cereal grains have been evaluated. The parts of the grains studied include the husk/bran and the endosperm. In this research, two commonly used fresh grains, millet and corn, were obtained from Dawanau market of Kano State. The fresh grains were spiked with permethrin pesticide commercially known as coopex dust at 10 g sample/33 mg dust. After extraction, detection of the residual level was carried out using UV spectrophotometric analysis at 290 nm. Results indicated higher permethrin residue accumulation in the husk/bran for millet sample with 25.37% recovery as against 17.09% recovered in the endosperm. Similar trend was observed for corn sample with 26.01% and 17.85% recoveries in the husk/bran and the endosperm, respectively.