Abstract

BETANCOURT-ARANGO, Juan Pablo; OSSA-JARAMILLO, Cesar Augusto  and  TABORDA-OCAMPO, Gonzalo. Extraction of pesticides in Hass avocado (Persea americana Mill. cv.) using C ₁₈ and functional clays as adsorbent phases in the QuEChERS methodology. Rev. acad. colomb. cienc. exact. fis. nat. [online]. 2021, vol.45, n.174, pp.286-299.  Epub Sep 18, 2021. ISSN 0370-3908.  https://doi.org/10.18257/raccefyn.1235.

The competitiveness agenda of the department of Caldas, Colombia, defines Hass avocado as one of the most important and promising fruit and vegetable products in the region. Given the favorable conditions of the tropics for pests, the use of pesticides is necessary for their control leading to potential danger for consumers' health due to the residues of these toxic chemicals in the final product. Our study focused on the safety of Hass avocado for consumption implementing and validating methodologies for the analysis of organochlorinated and organophosphate pesticides. We analyzed shells and pulp using the QuEChERS methodology and compared two adsorbent phases, C and functional clays, to obtain a mixture of analytes later separated and identified by gas chromatography with electron microcapture detector (GC - ECD) for organochlorine compounds and by gas chromatography with nitrogen and phosphorus detection (GC - NPD) for organophosphorus compounds. QuEChERS' methodology associated with functional clays was more efficient than C phase extraction according to the average resolution values obtained: 3.44 for shells and 2.12 for pulp. The use of this new adsorbent phase also facilitated separation, generated a higher resolution, and extracted the pesticides present in the matrix more efficiently.

Keywords : Avocado; Functional clays; Gas chromatography; QuEChERS; Pesticides.

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