Monitoring research for residual pesticides as endocrine disruptors in natural medicines (I)

Abstract

Research on pesticide residues as endocrine disruptors in natural medicines was initiated by Korea Food & Drug Administration this year. We determined the presence and levels of certain pesticides in selected natural medicines. The natural medicines collected this year are Glycyrrhiza Root, Cinnamon Bark, Pueraria Root, Polygonatum Rhizome, Jujube, Schizandra Fruit, Lycium Fruit, Liriope Tuber, Eucommia Bark, Peony Root, Korean Angelica, Dioscorea Rhizome, Conidium Rhizome, Cassia Seed, Platycodon Root, Cornus Fruit, Mentha Herb, Epimedium Herb, Bupleurum Root, and Ginger, which have no data for pesticide residues and 192 samples of them were circulated in Korea, 28 samples were circulated in China. In order to analyze many pesticides in large number of samples we used simultaneous multi-residue analysis of pesticides by GC-ECD, which was followed by GC-MSD analysis to confirm the identity of the detected pesticide in each sample.