Organophosphate Pesticide Residues in Okra and Brinjal Grown in Peri-Urban Environment of Big Cities of Punjab

Peri urban farming system is main supplier of vegetables to urban population and organophosphate pesticides exposure due to consumption of okra and brinjal to urban population has been estimated in this study. Okra and brinjal samples (90 samples for each vegetable) were collected from peri-urban farming area of Faisalabad, Multan and Gujranwala and were analysed by GC-ECD for quantification of chlorpyrifos, profenophos and triazophos residues. Data were statistically analyzed to calculate, mean and standard deviation. Quantification of pesticides residues revealed that 85 (47.22%) samples were contaminated and 15 (8.33 % of total samples and 17.64% of contaminated) samples showed residues value higher than MRL'S. Out of 85 contaminated samples 27 (31.76%) samples were contaminated with chlorpyrifos, 30 (35.29%) samples with profenofos and 29 (34.11) were contaminated with triazophos. The mean concentration of chlorpyrifos in okra was 0.192 mg Kg(-1) and brinjal 0.197 mg Kg(-1). The mean concentration for profenofos in okra was 0.02 mg Kg(-1) and brinjal 0.035 mg Kg(-1). Similarly mean concentration for triazophos in okra was 0.009 mg Kg(-1) and brinjal 0.01 mg Kg(-1). Overall, 6.67% samples of okra and 6.66% samples of brinjal contaminated with chlorpyrifos exceeded EU MRL of 0.05 mg kg(-1). Okra samples were found contaminated at frequency of 4.44% and brinjal samples at frequency of 5.56% with higher profenofos residues level than MRL of 0.05 mg kg(-1). Approximately, 6.67% samples of okra and 5.6% samples of brinjal had profenofos residue level above MRL of 0.01 mg kg(-1). This study may be helpful for building database regarding regional exposure of urban population and facilitate in estimation of possible risk to their health in our daily life.