The honey bee, Apis mellifera, is frequently used as a sentinel to monitor environmental pollution. In parallel, general weakening and unprecedented colony losses have been reported in Europe and the ...USA, and many factors are suspected to play a central role in these problems, including infection by pathogens, nutritional stress and pesticide poisoning. Honey bee, honey and pollen samples collected from eighteen apiaries of western France from four different landscape contexts during four different periods in 2008 and in 2009 were analyzed to evaluate the presence of pesticides and veterinary drug residues.
A multi-residue analysis of 80 compounds was performed using a modified QuEChERS method, followed by GC-ToF and LC-MS/MS. The analysis revealed that 95.7%, 72.3% and 58.6% of the honey, honey bee and pollen samples, respectively, were contaminated by at least one compound. The frequency of detection was higher in the honey samples (n = 28) than in the pollen (n = 23) or honey bee (n = 20) samples, but the highest concentrations were found in pollen. Although most compounds were rarely found, some of the contaminants reached high concentrations that might lead to adverse effects on bee health. The three most frequent residues were the widely used fungicide carbendazim and two acaricides, amitraz and coumaphos, that are used by beekeepers to control Varroa destructor. Apiaries in rural-cultivated landscapes were more contaminated than those in other landscape contexts, but the differences were not significant. The contamination of the different matrices was shown to be higher in early spring than in all other periods.
Honey bees, honeys and pollens are appropriate sentinels for monitoring pesticide and veterinary drug environmental pollution. This study revealed the widespread occurrence of multiple residues in beehive matrices and suggests a potential issue with the effects of these residues alone or in combination on honey bee health.
The irrational usage of chemical substances including pesticides and drugs in agricultural and food production is a significant food safety issue due to its residues. Therefore, the detection of ...harmful residues in foods is an indispensable step for guaranteeing the consumer's health. Conventional methods, such as HPLC, GC-MS and LC-MS are accurate enough, but they fail to meet the requirements of the modern industry for rapid and on-line detection. Novel reliable techniques should thus be developed as alternatives.
In this review, fundamentals of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is introduced. Recent advances in its usage for detecting harmful chemical residues in agricultural products including pesticides, antibiotics and β2-adrenergic agonists are discussed by two typical ways of detection improvement, and the advantages of SERS are addressed. Finally, future trends to routine use of SERS applications in harmful residues are presented.
SERS is a promising detection technique for the detection of common harmful chemical residues with merits of simple sampling, rapid data collection and non-destructiveness. Despite rapid developments in the technology, there is much studies should be done before SERS could be used as a daily tool for the industry.
•Principles of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) are introduced.•Recent applications of SERS for harmful residues detection are reported.•Future perspectives and limitations of SERS are discussed.•More studies should be done for possible daily use of SERS in the industry.
The excessive use or abuse of pesticides and veterinary drugs leads to residues in food, which can threaten human health. Therefore, there is an extremely urgent need for multi-analyte analysis ...techniques for the detection of pesticide and veterinary drug residues, which can be applied as screening techniques for food safety monitoring and detection. Recent developments related to rapid multi-residue detection methods for pesticide and veterinary drug residues are reviewed herein. Methods based on different recognition elements or the inherent characteristics of pesticides and veterinary drugs are described in detail. The preparation and application of three broadly specific recognition elements-antibodies, aptamers, and molecular imprinted polymers-are summarized. Furthermore, enzymatic inhibition-based sensors, near-infrared spectroscopy, and SERS spectroscopy based on the inherent characteristics are also discussed. The aim of this review is to provide a useful reference for the further development of rapid multi-analyte analysis of pesticide and veterinary drug residues.
Biomass is the major energy source in Ghana contributing about 64% of Ghana's primary energy supply. In this paper, an assessment of biomass resources and biofuels production potential in Ghana is ...given. The broad areas of energy crops, agricultural crop residues, forest products residues, urban wastes and animal wastes are included. Animal wastes are limited to those produced by domesticated livestock. Agricultural residues included those generated from sugarcane, maize, rice, cocoa, oil palm, coconut, sorghum and millet processing. The urban category is subdivided into municipal solid waste, food waste, sewage sludge or bio-solids and waste grease. The availability of these types of biomass, together with a brief description of possible biomass conversion routes, sustainability measures, and current research and development activities in Ghana is given. It is concluded that a large availability of biomass in Ghana gives a great potential for biofuels production from these biomass resources.
Glyphosate-based herbicides (GlyBH), including Roundup, are the most widely used pesticides worldwide. Their uses have increased exponentially since their introduction on the market. Residue levels ...in food or water, as well as human exposures, are escalating. We have reviewed the toxic effects of GlyBH measured below regulatory limits by evaluating the published literature and regulatory reports. We reveal a coherent body of evidence indicating that GlyBH could be toxic below the regulatory lowest observed adverse effect level for chronic toxic effects. It includes teratogenic, tumorigenic and hepatorenal effects. They could be explained by endocrine disruption and oxidative stress, causing metabolic alterations, depending on dose and exposure time. Some effects were detected in the range of the recommended acceptable daily intake. Toxic effects of commercial formulations can also be explained by GlyBH adjuvants, which have their own toxicity, but also enhance glyphosate toxicity. These challenge the assumption of safety of GlyBH at the levels at which they contaminate food and the environment, albeit these levels may fall below regulatory thresholds. Neurodevelopmental, reproductive, and transgenerational effects of GlyBH must be revisited, since a growing body of knowledge suggests the predominance of endocrine disrupting mechanisms caused by environmentally relevant levels of exposure.
•We have reviewed the toxic effects of glyphosate and its commercial formulations.•Glyphosate-based herbicides cause teratogenic, tumorigenic and hepatorenal effects.•These effects could be explained by endocrine disruption and oxidative stress.•Some effects were detected in the range of the recommended acceptable daily intake.•Current evidence presented raises concerns and indicates the need for further studies.
Now-a-days, various types of antibiotics are being used worldwide in veterinary sector indiscriminately for promotion of growth and treatment of the livestock. Significant portions of antibiotics are ...released through milk of dairy animals unaltered and exert serious harmful effects on human health. This review evaluates and compare researches on antibiotic residues in milk in published literatures from Pubmed, CrossRef, CAB direct, DOAJ, JournalTOCs, AGRICOLA, ScientificGate, Electronic Journals Library, CAB abstracts, Global Health Databases, Global Impact Factor, Google Scholar, Park Directory of Open Access Journals, BanglaJOL and ISC E-Journals. Antibiotics residue in milk was first detected in 60s and then with an increasing trend with highest after 2,000 (188). The highest no. of works, 49 (21.87%) were accomplished in China, followed by Spain, 30 (13.39%); Germany, 11 (4.91%); and USA, 10 (4.46%). Continent-wise highest researches are published from Europe, 105 (46.88%), followed by Asia, 77 (34.38%); South America, 18 (8.04%); North America, 16 (7.14%); and Africa, 8 (3.57%). For detection, Bovine milk sample is mostly used, 193 (86.16%), followed by ovine, 19 (8.48%); and caprine, 14 (6.25%). Acetonitrile was used in maximum cases (77) for processing the samples. Chromatographic technique was the highest, 115 (51.34%) for detection. Residue of ß-lactam group have been detected mostly 133 (36.54%), followed by tetracyclines, 51 (14.01%); fluoroquinolones, 49 (13.46%); sulfonamides, 46 (12.64%); and aminoglycosides, 38 (10.44%). This review observe that antibiotics residues are more common in milk samples that are being manifested in increasing researches on antibiotic detection and measures should adopt to cease this residue.
Pesticides are chemicals frequently used in agriculture to obtain maximum yield and improve product quality. Thousands of active ingredients and formulations of different pesticides are commercially ...available. Besides their advantages, a major disadvantage of pesticides is their residues, even though strict maximum residue limits have been set for each pesticide and permitted agricultural commodity. Permanence of pesticide residues on agricultural products depends on several factors such as the properties of pesticide, formulation, and applied concentration. Light, temperature, plant morphology, and plant growth factors are also effective in determining permanence. Degradation effects of the processing treatments rely on the dissolution of pesticides in the surrounding atmosphere, hydrolysis, microbial degradation, oxidation, penetration, and photo-degradation. Various steps applied during food processing, such as washing with water or other aqueous solutions, peeling, chopping, pickling, heat treatments, and processes such as drying, canning, fruit juice and concentrate production, malt, beer and wine production, oil production, and storage have certain effects on the presence of pesticide residues as well. Only washing with water can remove pesticide residue up to 100%, depending on the location of residue, residence time on food, water solubility of residue, washing temperature, and agents used to increase effectiveness. Besides washing, skin removal or peeling is one of the most effective treatments for residue removal, especially on non-systemic pesticides. During cooking, residues might be evaporated or hydrolyzed. Effects of storage temperature on reduction are related to volatilization, penetration, metabolism of pesticide, moisture content, and microbial growth, if any. In refrigerated or frozen storage, residues are stable or degrade slowly. Drying may increase the residue content because of the concentration, but in sun-drying reduction may occur because of photo-degradation. Clarification and filtration may eliminate residues retained in suspended particles. The degradation product, however, may be more toxic than the initial compound in some cases.
In the European Union, the use of veterinary drugs belonging to the A6 group is prohibited in food-producing animals according to Commission Regulation (EU) No. 2010/37. The aim of this study was to ...improve the analytical control strategy by developing a single method to analyse residues of prohibited pharmacologically active substances in milk. For this, a single method was developed to analyse 16 prohibited pharmacologically active substances belonging to five different substance classes at required or recommended levels: nitroimidazoles at 3 μg kg
−1
, nitrofurans at 0.5 μg kg
−1
, chloramphenicol at 0.1 μg kg
−1
, dapsone at 5 μg kg
−1
and chlorpromazine at 1 μg kg
−1
. Milk sample preparation started with an acid hydrolysis combined with a derivatisation. These steps were followed by a clean-up consisting of a dispersive solid-phase extraction and a liquid-liquid extraction. Finally, the sample extracts were analysed by liquid chromatography combined with tandem mass spectrometry, operating alternately in the positive and negative mode. The method was fully validated according to Commission Decision 2002/657/EC for bovine milk and additionally validated for caprine milk. The validation proved that the method is highly effective to detect and confirm all 16 substances in bovine and caprine milk and, additionally to quantify 15 of these substances in bovine milk and 13 of these substances in caprine milk. This study resulted in a new multi-class method to detect, quantify and confirm the identity of 16 prohibited pharmacologically active substances belonging to five different substance classes in two types of milk.
•High variety of methods for analyzing pesticides in grapes and no universal method accepted.•Multi-residue methods include large numbers of pesticides and different matrices.•Need for specific ...methods for the analysis of certain pesticides in grapes and by-products.•QuEChERS coupled to LC–MS/MS and GC–MS/MS is the most commonly used procedure.
This review presents an overview of analytical methods for the analysis of pesticide residues in grapes and by-products in the last decade. The most widely used detection technique for the determination of pesticides in grapes is mass spectrometry combined with gas and/or liquid chromatography. In general, multi-residue methods with selective sample treatment methodologies have been developed for this purpose. However, this review focuses not only on these common multi-residue methods but also on specific methodologies as single-residue methods for the analysis of pesticides in grapes and by-products. Finally, the limitations of multi-residue methods, the future perspectives and the trends for pesticide residue analysis in grapes are reviewed.
Black‐phase formamidinium lead iodide (FAPbI3) with narrow bandgap and high thermal stability has emerged as the most promising candidate for highly efficient and stable perovskite photovoltaics. In ...order to overcome the intrinsic difficulty of black‐phase crystallization and to eliminate the lead iodide (PbI2) residue, most sequential deposition methods of FAPbI3‐based perovskite will introduce external ions like methylammonium (MA+), cesium (Cs+), and bromide (Br–) ions to the perovskite structure. Here a zwitterion‐functionalized tin(IV) oxide (SnO2) is introduced as the electron‐transport layer (ETL) to induce the crystallization of high‐quality black‐phase FAPbI3. The SnO2 ETL treated with the zwitterion of formamidine sulfinic acid (FSA) can help rearrange the stack direction, orientation, and distribution of residual PbI2 in the perovskite layer, which reduces the side effect of the residual PbI2. Besides, the FSA functionalization also modifies SnO2 ETL to suppress deep‐level defects at the perovskite/SnO2 interface. As a result, the FSA–FAPbI3‐based perovskite solar cells (PSCs) exhibit an excellent power conversion efficiency of up to 24.1% with 1000 h long‐term operational stability. These findings provide a new interface engineering strategy on the sequential fabrication of black‐phase FAPbI3 PSCs with improved optoelectronic performance.
A zwitterion formamidine sulfinic acid (FSA) is deposited at the tin(IV) oxide (SnO2)/perovskite interface to induce the crystallization of high‐quality black‐phase formamidinium lead iodide (FAPbI3), and also help reduce the side effect of the residual lead iodide (PbI2), yielding an impressive power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 24.1% and 1000 h long‐term operational stability.
PDF
