Residues of profenofos in spring onion

Profenofos is one of the commonly used insecticides in the control of Trips tabaci on spring onion in Iran. Residues of profenofos in spring onion were determined in two different fields under the same conditions. In the first field, onion plants were sprayed with profenofos (40EC) at the rate of 1000 g/ha. Spraying was repeated 2 weeks later. In the second field one spraying was preformed at the same rate. Spring onionwere sampled at different time intervals and analyzed for profenofos residues using a GC equipped with NPD detector. In the first field's samples, the residues were 0.097 and 0.025 mg/kg at 2 and 6 days after spraying, respectively. The residues declined to 0.002 mg/kg on the day twelve. Two days after the second spraying the residues was 0.27 mg/kg, which reduced to 0.032 on the day sixth. However the residues were not detectable 32 days after the second spraying. In the second field, residue levels were 0.193 and 0.043 mg/kg at 2 and 6 days after spraying. Residues, which found after 32 days, were less than 0.001 mg/kg. The rate of residue decay in the first field was higher than the second field.