Original Articles
Neha Thanki, Praful Joshi and
Abstract
Tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) contribute to a healthy, well-balanced diet. They are rich in minerals, vitamins, essential amino acids, sugars and dietary fibres. Tomato contains much vitamin B and C, iron and phosphorus. Tomato fruits are consumed fresh in salads or cooked in sauces, soup and meat or fish dishes. They can be processed into purées, juices and ketchup. Canned and dried tomatoes are economically important processed products. The major tomato producing states are Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal, Orissa, Maharashtra, and Gujarat. 978.44, 841.30 and 746.20 tones tomato produced by Gujarat state during 2010-11, 2009-10 and 2008-09 respectively (Source: National Horticulture Board (NHB)). Traditionally tomato preparation is eaten in the form of raw or cooked. Therefore, raw, washed and cooked form of tomato was selected for the study. The effects of household processing on pesticide residues were also studied. Analysis of tomato for pesticidal contamination was carried out on Gas Chromatograph-Electron Capture and TID Detector with capillary columns. Tomato was found contaminated with Phorate, malathion, parathion, quinalphos, profenophos, pendamethalin, aldrin, p,p’ DDT, captafol, permethrin and , cypermethrin. The study revealed that tomato was found contaminated maximum with parathion and minimum with p, p’ DDT in the range of 13.20-15.25 and 0.0065-0.0078 μgg-1 respectively. Findings show that washing and cooking process minimized the pesticide residues of eleven pesticides in the range of 1.74- 64.78 and 38.40-90.15 percent respectively. The percentage reductions in the present study are supported by both early and most recent publications. These reductions are extremely important in evaluating the risk associated with ingestion of pesticide residues, especially in vegetables, which are eaten by almost all income groups’ people. The present study showed that cooking was found more effective than washing and boiling.