MEASUREMENT OF PESTICIDES RESIDUES USING SPECTROSCOPY ON AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS

A new spectroscopic method for pesticide residues detection on agricultural products was developed. The general determination methods are high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), gas chromatography (GC) or GC-mass spectrometry. They have provided relatively good detection limit and accuracy with complicated and time-consuming (5hrs above) procedures. In addition freshness is very important for evaluating qualities of agricultural products. This requires a simple and fast method for detection of pesticides. Reflectance, transmittance and fluorescence spectrometry of pesticides were tested using UV range because most of pesticides contain conjugation band in the molecular structures. Fluorescence spectrometry showed better sensitive to detect pesticide residues than did reflectance and transmittance spectrometry. Intensity and shape of fluorescence spectra showed different patterns with different structures of pesticides. Detection limit for fluorescence spectrometry was 0.1 ppm to 10 ppm depending on the structures of pesticides. Application of fluorescence spectrometry appears to be an easy method for detection of pesticide residues on agricultural products.