Toxicological Characterization of Pesticide Residue in Phaseolus vulgaris

The health implications associated with consumption of food crops preserved with pesticides such as diarrhea, food poisons have been a major challenge to health practitioners and the concerned authorities, the objective of the research was to analyze the pesticide residues and compare the contamination rate with Acceptable Dietary Intake (ADI) and Maximum Residue Limit (MRL).

Phaseolus vulgaris were purchased in two different locations, the samples were powdered using a grinder (Sumeet CM/L 2128945). Fifty grams of powdered flour were soaked in 200 mL of Methanol and the crude extracts were concentrated using a rotary evaporator. The extracts were Characterized using GC-MS and percentage compositions of identified pesticide residues were converted into mg/g as contamination rate and the toxic analysis was done by using the Osiris Online server.

In chromatogram A, identified pesticides residue include Dieldrin (96.1 mg g-1), Indolizine (67.9 mg g-1), permethrin (99.4 mg g-1) and compounds identified in chromatogram B include dichlorvos (8.2 mg g-1), Diazinon (52.3 mg g-1), fenitrothion (17.8 mg g-1) and permethrin (122.0 mg g-1). These pesticide residues exhibited various toxicological effects, such as; mutagenic, tumorigenic effects. Moreover, the contamination rates of the identified residues were higher than both MRL and ADI.

The research work had shown that the two samples had contamination rates higher than both the ADI and MRL, this could pose health hazards to the populace if consumed and it is recommended that the applications of pesticides in foods should be regulated and MRL and ADI should be adhered to.