Impact of Pesticide Type and Emulsion Fat Content on the Bioaccessibility of Pesticides in Natural Products.

Yunbing Tan,David Julian Mcclements,Ruojie Zhang,Shanshan Lv,Ruyi Li,Zipei Zhang

doi:10.3390/molecules25061466

Abstract

There is interest in incorporating nanoemulsions into certain foods and beverages, including dips, dressings, drinks, spreads, and sauces, due to their potentially beneficial attributes. In particular, excipient nanoemulsions can enhance the bioavailability of nutraceuticals in fruit- and vegetable-containing products consumed with them. There is, however, potential for them to also raise the bioavailability of undesirable substances found in these products, such as pesticides. In this research, we studied the impact of excipient nanoemulsions on the bioaccessibility of pesticide-treated tomatoes. We hypothesized that the propensity for nanoemulsions to raise pesticide bioaccessibility would depend on the polarity of the pesticide molecules. Bendiocarb, parathion, and chlorpyrifos were therefore selected because they have Log P values of 1.7, 3.8, and 5.3, respectively. Nanoemulsions with different oil contents (0%, 4%, and 8%) were fabricated to study their impact on pesticide uptake. In the absence of oil, the bioaccessibility increased with increasing pesticide polarity (decreasing Log P): bendiocarb (92.9%) > parathion (16.4%) > chlorpyrifos (2.8%). Bendiocarb bioaccessibility did not depend on the oil content of the nanoemulsions, which was attributed to its relatively high water-solubility. Conversely, the bioaccessibility of the more hydrophobic pesticides (parathion and chlorpyrifos) increased with increasing oil content. For instance, for chlorpyrifos, the bioaccessibility was 2.8%, 47.0%, and 70.7% at 0%, 4%, and 8% oil content, respectively. Our findings have repercussions for the utilization of nanoemulsions as excipient foods in products that may have high levels of undesirable non-polar substances, such as pesticides.

Highlights

Emulsion-based foods are commonly consumed with fruits and vegetables, e.g., dressings and dips with salads, hot sauces with cooked vegetables, ice creams with fruit pies, whipped creams with fruit salads, and pouring creams with fruit smoothies [1,2]
One concern with utilizing emulsions as excipient foods to enhance the bioavailability of nutraceuticals in agricultural products, is that they could increase the bioavailability of detrimental substances
Our in vitro results suggest that the bioaccessibility of a pesticide on fresh produce depends its hydrophobicity, as well as the amount of oil droplets co-ingested with it

Summary

Introduction

Emulsion-based foods are commonly consumed with fruits and vegetables, e.g., dressings and dips with salads, hot sauces with cooked vegetables, ice creams with fruit pies, whipped creams with fruit salads, and pouring creams with fruit smoothies [1,2]. These types of emulsion-based products are primarily consumed to enhance the palatability of fruits and vegetables, but they may enhance their nutritional profile by boosting the bioavailability of the lipophilic nutraceuticals contained within them [3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. We demonstrated that mixing emulsions with tomatoes prior to digestion increased the bioaccessibility of chlorpyrifos, a non-polar pesticide [23]

Methods

Results

Conclusion