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Table 1 Conventional methods to detect pesticides

From: The application of rapid test paper technology for pesticide detection in horticulture crops: a comprehensive review

No

Determination method

Sample

Type of pesticide detected

Advantages

Disadvantages

References

1

GC-ECD

Soil

Halogenated compound organochlorines (OC) such as DDT, DDE, Lindane, Endosulfan, Heptachlor, and Chlordane

Organophosphorus pesticides (OPPs)

Synthetic pyrethroids

Pyrethrin

Triazines

Highly sensitive, selective, sensitive for electrophilic compounds

Low detection limit, destructive, not applicable for many analytes, not environmentally safe

Amvrazi et al. [9], Ng et al. [133]

2

GC-FID

Fatty acids

Organophosphate pesticides (OP)

Malathion and Parathion

Diazinon and Disulfoton

Hydrocarbons

Most popular, easy, rapid response, large limit of alkanes detection is 10-12g

Destructive, cannot detect inorganic substances and some are highly oxygenated, mass sensitive and not concentration sensitive

Visentainer et al. [176], Lehotay et al. [102]

3

GC-FPD

Fruits, vegetables, tomato

-Sulphur or phosphorus-containing compounds

Hetero-atoms, including metallic elements

Organophosphate (OP) pesticides and their OP metabolites

Fenitrothion residue.

Highly sensitive detection, quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, safe

Filter must be exchanged between chromatographic runs

Podhorniak et al. [147], Malhat et al. [116]

4

NPD

Tomato, sweet corn, soils

-Organic compounds containing nitrogen or phosphorous

Organophosphorus (OP) such as acephate, chlorpyrifos, malathion, methamidophos, and parathion-methyl residues

Chlorpyrifos

Faster and less expensive, high resolution. Sufficient limits of detection. good reproducibility

Limited, destructive, not safe, not sufficiently effective

Gobo et al. [68]; Wang et al. [181]

5

GC-MS

Grape samples, cucumber

Organochlorines

Organophosphorus

Carbamates

Pyrethroids

Triazines

Triazoles

Pyrazoles

Sulphite ester

Acylalanin

Very good recovery value, quick, easy, cheap, effective, use of analyte protectants, determination of various classes of pesticide residues, simple, sensitive, selective

Clean-up performance is not good enough

Khetagoudar et al. [93], Walorczyk et al. [178], Nasiri et al. [132], Dong et al. [51]

6

LC-MS

Zizania latifolia, fruits, vegetables

Organophosphorus pesticides (OPPs)

Organophosphate pesticides (OP)

Quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, safe, adaptable, selective, simple, does not require a mass of toxic organic solvents, allows processing a significantly larger number of samples in a short time, identify solutes in low concentrations (which are in parts per million- PPM) in a complex mixture

Higher operational cost, more limited sample throughput and less favourable, only works with volatile buffers that are required to avoid fouling of the API interface, residual impurities being analysed should be ionized

Xu et al. [188], Alder et al. [7]

7

HPLC

Tomatoes, fruits, vegetables

Organophosphorus pesticides (OPPs) (parathion, phoxim, phorate, and chlorpyrifos)

Benomyl (benzimidazol fungicide).

Insecticides and acaricides

Tebuthiuron and diuron (urea herbicides)

Simazine, atrazine

Ametryn (triazines herbicides)

High separation efficiency, good selectivity, extremely quick, high detection sensitivity

Costly, complex, requires large quantities of expensive organic compounds

Melo et al. [124], de Villiers et al. [46]

8

GC-MS/MS

Fruits, vegetables, cereal samples

Organophosphorus (OPs) pesticides include both organophosphates and organothio phosphates

Excellent sensitivity and selectivity and identification of low pesticide concentrations for non-polar (semi) volatile compounds, multi-residue method

Biological samples cannot be analysed

Chang et al. [36], Walorczyk and Drożdżyński [177], Hernández et al. [78]

9

HPLC-MS/MS

Cereal samples, Rice (Oryza sativa L)

Flutriafol

Insecticide (pirimiphos-methyl).

Quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, safe, appropriate to assess the compliance of cereal specimens with further regulated highest residue levels of pesticides

 

Melo et al. [125]

  1. GC-ECD gas chromatography with electron capture detector; GC-FPD gas chromatography-flame photometric detector; GC-FID gas chromatography-flame-ionization detector; NPD nitrogen–phosphorus detector; GC-MS gas chromatography-mass spectrometry; LC-MS liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry; HPLC high-performance liquid chromatography; GC-MS/MS gas chromatography-mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry; and HPLC-MS/MS high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry