Revista Europea de Biología Experimental Acceso abierto

Abstracto

Effect of household processing on reduction of pesticide residues in Cauliflower (Brassica oleraceae var. botrytis)

Neha Thanki, Praful Joshi and Hasmukh Josh

Cauliflower is widely cultivated in almost all the parts of the world. In India, it is cultivated in about 90 thousand hectares area. There has been a substantial increase in the area of cauliflower (about 20%) during the last two decades. The important cauliflower growing states are Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, Punjab and Haryana. 387.41, 356.75, and 321.15 tones cabbage produced by Gujarat state during 2010- 11, 2009-10 and 2008-09 respectively (Source: National Horticulture Board; NHB). Cauliflower or phul gobhi is used as a cooked vegetable in curries, soups, etc. It is frequently employed as an ingredient of mixed pickles. Traditionally cauliflower is eaten in the form of raw, boiled and cooked as a subji and soups and therefore raw, washed, boiled and cooked samples were selected for the pesticide residual analysis. The effects of household processing on pesticide residues were also studied. Analysis of cauliflower for pesticidal contamination was carried out on Gas Chromatograph-Electron Capture and TID Detector with capillary columns. Cauliflower was found contaminated with diclorvos, monocrotophos, phorate, parathion, pendamethalin, endosulphan-II, captafol, permethrin and cypermethrin. The study revealed that cauliflower was found contaminated maximum with dichlorvos and minimum with phorate in the range of 85.1-95.12 and 0.076-0.096 μgg-1 respectively Findings show that washing; boiling and cooking process minimized the pesticide residues of nine pesticides in the range of 3.32- 70.0, 21.08-70.67 and 31.63-85.30 percent respectively. The percentage reductions in the present study are supported by both early and most recent publications. These reductions are extremely important in evaluating the risk associated with ingestion of pesticide residues, especially in vegetables, which are eaten by almost all income groups’ people. The present study showed that cooking was found more effective than washing and boiling