Rapid immunochemical methods for the determination of N-methhycarbamate pesticide in fruit juices

N-methylcarbamate pesticides were introduced worldwide as substituents of persistent organochlorine compounds, due to their broad spectrum of activity and their low bioaccumulation potentials. Though pesticides are indispensable chemicals in modern civilization, the exposure to their residues poses a potential hazard for humans, especially for children. Traditional methods of analysis (e.g. HPLC/MS), although sensitive, are expensive and time-consuming and require specialized instrumentation. Because pesticide residues occur in water, soil and food crop, there is a growing demand for increased analytical capability and capacity of the laboratories involved in pollution monitoring. In this respect, immunochemical methods are gaining importance as analytical techniques in the agrochemical field, since they provide the analytical chemists with a rapid, sensitive and cost-effective alternative to chromatographic methods. The aim of the present work was the development of new rapid and simple immunochemical method for the determination of carbofuran, carbaryl and methiocarb pesticides in environmental samples. For experiments were chosen enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) and lateral flow immunoassays (LFIA). Both developed methods were applied for determination of above mentioned pesticides in diluted tomato and orange juices, spiked at different concentration levels. For ELISA, recovery values were around 100 % and no matrix effects were observed when juices were diluted 1:20 or more. For LFIA was suitable to analyze five times diluted juices.