THIOMETON RESIDUES IN CUCUMBER

摘要

In the Islamic Republic of Iran, vegetables are treated repeatedly with pesticides to control pests and diseases. Crops harvested shortly after pesticide application are probably contaminated by pesticides that are toxic to humans. Pesticide residues in vegetables are especially important, since these crops are ingested directly by humans. In recent years, farmers have been using more persistent pesticides to protect their crops because of increasing pesticide prices. Field trials were carried out to determine the residues of thiometon, a systemic insecticide used on cucumber. In 1993 and 1994, Ekatin (a 25% thiometon emulsifiable concentrate) was applied with a knapsack sprayer to cucumber (var. Daminus) at late flowering at dilutions of 1:1000 and 2:1000. Plots were 25 m~2 in three replicates and were sampled 3, 6, 10, 15, 19 and 24 days after application. The samples were extracted with acetonitrile and cleanup was carried out using thin layer chromatography. Thiometon and two metabolites (thiometon sulphide and thiometon sulphone) were analysed by gas chromatography. In 1994, the amount of thiometon sulphide determined 24 days after treatment was 2 ppm in the peeled cucumber, which exceeded the maximum residue limit of 0.5 ppm. The total thiometon residues were higher in the peeled cucumber than those in the cucumber peel. Thus, peeling is ineffective for reducing the systemic residues of thiometon. Likewise, in this experiment lower dilution caused higher rather than lower thiometon residues in cucumber. The rapid disappearance of thiometon residues 2 weeks after treatment suggests that storing cucumbers at room temperature may be a better strategy for reducing excessive thiometon residues. Alternatively, a contact insecticide could be used. Thus, the bulk of the surface residues could be removed by washing or peeling.