Neha Thanki, Praful Joshi and Hasmukh Joshi
Eggplant is cultivated largely on small landholdings where sale of its produce from a frequent picking through the prolonged harvest season generates valuable cash income to farmers. In the hot-wet monsoon season, when other vegetables are in short supply, eggplant is practically the only vegetable that is available at an affordable price for rural and urban poor. Traditionally eggplant is eaten in the form of subji and roasted form known as bharatha or orro. Therefore, raw, cooked and roasted form of eggplant was selected for the study. Literature reveals that vegetables may contain pesticide residues above the prescribed maximum residue levels (MRL), which may pose health hazard to the consumers. Analysis of eggplant for pesticidal contamination was carried out on Gas Chromatograph-Electron Capture and TID Detector with capillary columns. Eggplant was found contaminated with monocrotophos, phorat, quinalphos, pendamethalin, carbaryl, p,p’ DDT, endosulphan, p,p’ DDD, captafol, permethrin and cypermethrin It can be concluded that residues of monocrotophos exceeded their respective maximum residue limits and it is decontaminated by cooking and roasting process. Processing substantially lowers the residues of pesticides in eggplant. The present study showed that roasting was found more effective than cooking.
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