Abstract

Monitoring of pesticides is conducted globally to assess the environmental load of their residues. However, carbamate pesticides are among the most common used pesticides in potato protection in Egypt. Here, nine potato tuber samples were randomly collected from Assiut, Elminia, Kalubia, Cairo, and Giza cities in Egypt to detect the contamination of some carbamate residues using quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe (QuEChERS) method. Three methods were used in this study, viz., washed, washed with salted, and peeled. The results indicated that concentrations of kresoxim and thiodicarb residues were higher in all potato samples than other pesticides studied. However, the highest significant value was found in Assiut city (Alzahraa market) for both pesticides (0.18 and 0.038 mg/kg, respectively). Furthermore, peeled method was found to be the most effective method in reducing the carbamate pesticide residues. Thus, further investigation should be done to figure out the potential methods of reducing carbamate pesticide residues in vegetables and strict regulation should be applied in using pesticides.

Key words: Carbamate, quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe (QuEChERS), pesticide residues, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), Potato tuber.