Abstract
The salad vegetable samples (102) of eight kinds (carrot, salad, radish, tomato cucumber, coriander, mint and sugar beat) grown on vast areas in Sindh especially in Thatta, Mirpurkhas, Hyderabad, Badin and Malir in Karachi were analyzed by gas chromatograph (GC) after and before washing with water. These vegetables are not only consumed locally but are exported to different countries especially to Europe, Far East and Middle East and help earn foreign exchange of more than 10 million rupees. Pakistan has already signed WTO and in the near future we would not be able to grow efficiently these vegetables in the pesticide free environment which would mean that the present technique of washing would help us in our export and comply with WTO restrain to some extent. From 15% to 64% average reduction in residues of different pesticides were calculated. A significant reduction (6-100%) in residues was observed in vegetables (carrot, Radish, tomato, cucumber, coriander, mint, and sugar beat. Moreover, a positive correlation (Adj. r 2 = 0.762) was observed between reduction in residues and pesticide‘s solubility in water (mg/L) i.e. Deltamethrin (DEL), fenitrothion (FEN), cypermethrin (CYP), profenofos (PRO) and malathion (MAL).
