Survey analysis of a huge number of pesticides in the sold medicinal plants under uncontrolled practices using both LC-MS/MS and GC-MS/MS.

Elhamalawy, Osama Hassan; Abd-elmootaal, Mohamed Refaat; Ismail, Marwa; Amer, Mohamed; Abd Allah, Hend; Taha, Sherif Mohamed

doi:10.21608/ejchem.2025.339134.10877

Survey analysis of a huge number of pesticides in the sold medicinal plants under uncontrolled practices using both LC-MS/MS and GC-MS/MS.

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Associate professor, Environment and Bio-Agriculture Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University

² Researcher, Central Laboratory of Residue Analysis of Pesticides and Heavy Metals in Foods (Qcap-Egyt).

³ Associate professor, Agricultural Research Center, central lab of biotechnology, plant pathology institute

⁴ Professor, Central Laboratory of Residue Analysis of Pesticides and Heavy Metals in Foods (Qcap-Egyt)

⁵ professor, Central Laboratory of Residue Analysis of Pesticides and Heavy Metals in Foods (Qcap-Egyt)

⁶ Associate professor, Central Laboratory of Residue Analysis of Pesticides and Heavy Metals in Foods (Qcap-Egyt)

10.21608/ejchem.2025.339134.10877

Abstract

In developing countries, herbal plants are sold not only under controlled conditions, such as in markets and pharmacies but also in traditional markets without adequate control conditions. Consequently, 120 samples of five medicinal plants were collected from local markets in three Egyptian governorates (40 samples for each governorate), and 461 pesticide residues were tested using LC-MS/MS and GC-MS/MS. The collected samples were extracted and cleaned up by an accredited analytical method based on the known QuEChERS extraction approach and using GC-MS/MS and LC-MS/MS. The results revealed the presence of 63 pesticide residues in samples collected from three different governorates. Notably, over fifteen different pesticides were detected in eight of the samples. Among these, chlorpyrifos was the most frequently detected pesticide. Thiophanate-methyl had the highest concentration, measuring 5.65 mg/kg, followed by malathion at 2.55 mg/kg, both of which were detected in Cairo Governorate. In conclusion, these findings indicate uncontrolled pesticide practices in herbal agriculture production, the import of highly contaminated herbs, and potential pesticide treatments during storage in uncontrolled local markets.

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