Adsorption, desorption, and mobility of two insecticides in Malaysian agricultural soil

Laboratory studies utilizing radioisotopic techniques were conducted to determine the adsorption, desorption, and mobility of endosulfan (6,7,8,9, 10, 10-hexachloro- 1,5,5 a,6,9,9a-hexahydro-6,9-methano-2,4,3 -benzodioxanthiepin3-oxide) and methamidophos (0,S-dimethyl phosphorothioate) in sandy loam and clay soils of the Cameron Highlands and the Muda rice-growing area, respectively. High Freundlich adsorption distribution coefficients [K-ads,(f)] for endosulfan (6.74 and 18.75) and low values for methamidophos (0.40 and 0.98) were obtained in the sandy loam and clay soils, respectively. The observed K-oc values for endosulfan were 350.85 (sandy loam) and 1143.19 (clay) while K-oc values of 20.92 (sandy loam) and 59.63 (clay) were obtained for methamidophos. Log K-ow of 0.40 and 1.25 were calculated for endosulfan as well as - 1.96 and - 1.21 for methamidophos in the sandy loam and clay soils, respectively. Desorption was common to both pesticides but the desorption capacity of methamidophos from each soil type far exceeded that of endosulfan. Soil thin layer chromatography (TLC) and column studies showed that while methamidophos was very mobile in both soils, endosulfan displayed zero mobility in clay soil.