Dietary Risk Assessment and Ranking of Multipesticides in Dendrobium officinale

Meng-Ying Gu,Shang-Mei Shi,Peng-Si Wang,Jian Xue,Antonio J Signes-Pastor

doi:10.1155/2021/9916758

Abstract

The presence of pesticide residues in Dendrobium officinale (D. officinale), a commonly used herbal medicine, has attracted much attention in recent years. Therefore, this study presents the levels of 141 pesticide residues in forty D. officinale samples, which were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). And we used a deterministic estimate model to assess chronic and acute dietary exposure risk, as well as the cumulative risks for adults, children, and specific groups of consumers. Furthermore, the residual risk of individual pesticides was sorted by adapting the matrix-ranking scheme. In 92.5% of the samples, 43 pesticides were detected, of which difenoconazole had the highest detection frequency. Multiple residues were detected in 85.0% of the samples, and one sample contained even up to 17 pesticides. The chronic hazard quotient (HQc) and the acute hazard quotient (HQa) were far below 100%, and both cumulative chronic and acute hazard indices (HI) did not exceed 100%. The risk scoring scheme showed that four pesticides were considered to pose a comparatively potential high risk, including difenoconazole, carbofuran, fipronil, and emamectin benzoate. The results indicated that the occurrence of pesticide residues in D. officinale could not pose a serious health problem to the public.

Highlights

With more and more people in the world using herbal medicines, the safety of the consumer has attracted international attention [1]. e extensive use of pesticides in the production of herbal medicines, coupled with the lack of good agricultural practices (GAP) and maximum residue limits (MRLs) for pesticides, has led to the accumulation of pesticide residues [2]
43 pesticides and metabolites were detected in the D. officinale samples. irty-seven out of 40 D. officinale samples contained at least one pesticide residue
Most pesticide residues were detected at low levels, but a few banned highly toxic pesticides were detected

Summary

Introduction

With more and more people in the world using herbal medicines, the safety of the consumer has attracted international attention [1]. e extensive use of pesticides in the production of herbal medicines, coupled with the lack of good agricultural practices (GAP) and maximum residue limits (MRLs) for pesticides, has led to the accumulation of pesticide residues [2]. An assessment of the consumption risks of herbal medicines polluted with pesticides should be conducted. Dendrobium officinale (D. officinale), which is ranked as “the first of the Chinese nine fairy herbs,” has been found to have therapeutic significance. It has shown a variety of pharmacological actions on diabetes [3], tumor [4], and immunomodulatory [5]. The wild D. officinale was on the IUCN red list of threatened species because of overexploitation and habitat deterioration [7]. More than 90% of D. officinale is cultivated in greenhouses [8]

Methods

Results

Conclusion