ABSTRACT
context: Pesticides are often used in agricultural sector to protect crops before and after their harvest. Pesticide residues are deposits of active components, metabolites, or breakdown products of pesticides discovered in some component of the environment. aim: Pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables were determined by gas chromatography/flame ionization detector. materials and method: Brinjal, tomato and grapes were purchased from the local market. Extraction of the samples was carried out using ethyl acetate/ methanol and acetonitrile/toluene extraction procedures to determine the percentage recovery of pesticides chlorpyrifos—an organophosphate and cypermethrin—a synthetic pyrethroids from fruits and vegetables from both the extraction procedures. The extracts were cleaned using graphitized carbon black, magnesium sulphate and primary, secondary amine (PSA). analysis: The analysis was done using gas chromatography with flame ionization detector. results and conclusion: The samples of brinjal, tomato and grape were spiked with known concentrations of pesticide samples. Most of the pesticides recovered 60-70% of their concentrations at 0.01-0.10mg/kg range under ideal extraction and clean-up procedures. The recovery of different pesticides was dependent on the types of extraction procedure used. For chlorpyriphos, ethyl acetate/methanol recover more of the pesticides and in case of cypermethrin, acetonitrile/toluene recover more of the pesticides. The lesser recovery of pesticides on 5 and 7 days was due to the conversion of pesticides in their metabolites that was not detected in GC-FID