Design of Microcontroller Based Cost Effective Portable Detection Circuit for Pesticide Recognition

Abstract

Excessive use of pesticides for better agricultural productivity poses serious threats to human health. Depending upon the duration and dose of exposure, deleterious effects may be intense or moderate, which may be one of the root causes of several diseases such as diabetes, asthma, cancer, cardiac attack, fertility defects etc. Inhibition of an acetylcholinesterase enzyme activity is commonly associated with pesticide exposure and as a result acetylcholine levels are elevated in blood of an exposed person. Common tools for detection of pesticide exposure measure an enzyme activity for acetylcholinesterase (ACHE), an important enzyme that regulates the neuro transmission functions in the human body. Proposed work includes an electronic design and simulation of microcontroller based portable detection circuit using electrochemical amperometric instrumentation for measurement of an acetylcholinesterase concentration in human blood. Handheld detection circuit consists of AT89C51 microcontroller, Analog to digital converter ADC0804 and Liquid Crystal Display Module LM016L.To program the microcontroller, Embedded C is used, due to their inherent characteristics of adaptability and portability across a wide assortment of hardware platforms. The developed detection circuit for biomonitoring of pesticides is cheap, flexible and covers wide range as compared to commercially available ones.