An Investigation on Residue Levels of Some Pesticides Used in Green-house Grown Cucumber in Hamedan Province, Iran

Hamedan is one of the pioneer provinces of Iran in the cultivation of green-house grown crops, especially cucumber. Frequent pesticide applications to control the pests in greenhouses have raised public anxiety concerning the pesticide residue in green-house products. The present report is the results of an investigation done on pesticide residue levels in green-house grown cucumber in Hamedan province. In this study 39 cucumber samples were collected from green-houses across the province. The residue levels of nine pesticides (dichlorvos, malathion, diazinon, pirimicarb, chlorpyrifos, imidacloprid, bromopropylate, tetradifon and metalaxyl) in each sample were determined, using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) or High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) analytical methods. The results indicated that no sample was completely free of residues of all tested pesticides. In 37.5% of the samples, the pesticide residue levels were higher than the maximum residue levels (MRLs). The residues of bromopropylate, tetradifon and pirimicarb were not higher than the MRLs in any sample. The average residues of diazinon, chlorpyrifos, dichlorvos and malathion in the samples were higher than their corresponding MRLs. The ratios of the mean residue to MRL (mean/MRL) for these four pesticides were 9.54, 4.84, 3.74 and 1.93, respectively. This is the first report on pesticide residue levels in green-house grown cucumber in Hamedan province.