Study of Organochlorinated Pesticide Residues and PCBs in Vegetable and Fruit Samples from market in Peja –Kosovo

Organoclorine pesticides (OCP) are the first class of compounds of synthetic pesticides introduced in agricultural and civil uses to counteract noxious insects and insect-born disease. In general they are lipophilic compounds with noticeable chemical and environmental stability. They tend to concentrate in the higher trophic organisms, as they amplify through the food chain. Food is generally recognized as the main source of human intake of pesticides, their metabolites and their residues. Preparation of samples, especially in food samples for quantitative analysis of organochlorined pesticides has an important role in recognizing the real levels. For the analysis of these micro-trace compounds in food samples is a constant search for new analytical methods. The most important steps of their chemical analysis usually are the extraction, purification, fractionation and concentration.In this study, were analyzed samples of fruit and vegetables from the market of Peja, Kosovo in September 2011. Ultrasonic extraction was used for extracting pesticide residues from samples. Clean-up procedure was performed using firstly sulfuric acid followed a second clean-up procedure in an “open” florisil column. The organochlorine pesticides detected were HCHs (a-, b-, γ- and d-isomers) and the DDT-related chemicals (o,p-DDE, p,p-DDE, p,p-DDD, p,p-DDT), hexachlorobenzene (HCB), heptachlor, heptachlor epoxide, methoxychlor and Aldrine’s. Analyses were done with capillary column Rtx-5, 60m long, 0.32mm internal diameter, 0.25 μm film thicknesses on a gas chromatograph Dani 1000, with μECD detector. The found concentrations of the chlorinated pesticides were lower than accepted levels for studied sample