Quantitative detection of dithiocarbamate pesticides by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy combined with an exhaustive peak-seeking method

Advances in Detection Technologies for Pesticide Residues and Heavy Metals in Rice: A Comprehensive Review of Spectroscopy, Chromatography, and Biosensors

Pesticide residues and heavy metals, originating from diverse sources such as agricultural practices and industrial activities, pose substantial risks to human health and the ecological environment. For instance, residues of organophosphorus pesticides may damage the human nervous system, while heavy metals such as mercury and cadmium accumulate in living organisms, potentially leading to severe organ damage. The contamination of rice with these pollutants has become a critical concern, necessitating the development of innovative detection techniques that are sensitive, accurate, rapid, portable, and intelligent. This review offers an in-depth analysis of the types, sources, health risks, and ecological impacts of pesticide residues and heavy metals in rice, providing a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and solutions associated with these contaminants. It further provides the fundamental principles, comparative advantages, and technical constraints of both conventional and emerging detection methodologies. These encompass traditional analytical techniques such as spectroscopy and chromatography, well-established immunoassay systems, as well as innovative biosensing technologies. This discussion is substantiated with representative case studies demonstrating their practical applications in rice quality assessment and safety testing. In addition, this review envisions future directions for the development of detection technologies, emphasizing the importance of miniaturization, multiplexed detection, integration with nanotechnology, and real-time monitoring systems. By providing a theoretical foundation for advancing food safety innovation, this review aims to contribute to the ongoing efforts to ensure rice quality and safety, protect public health, and preserve ecological balance.

Bimetallic coreshell nanorods with thioglycolic acid monolayer for highly sensitive and rapid SERS detection of thiabendazole and ziram residues in Prunus Persica peaches

Simultaneous assessment of agrochemical residues in agricultural entities is crucial for ensuring food safety and protecting consumer health. A highly sensitive and stable thioglycolic acid (TGA) based surface modified coreshell nanorod (Au@Ag@TGANR) arrays were developed for simultaneous fungicide detection in peach samples. The developed Au@Ag@TGANRs exhibited superior surface enhance Raman scattering (SERS) performance, enabling the simultaneous examination of ziram (ZIR) and thiabendazole (TBZ) residues in peach samples with detection limits as low as 0.003 and 0.028 ppm and high R2 values of 0.996 and 0.995, for ZIR and TBZ, respectively. Good recoveries of 86.2 to 108.6 % and 80.2 to 105.7 % were also achieved for peach samples, highlighting the effectiveness of the established protocol for accurate and reliable detection of pesticides in fruits. These results suggest that the proposed method could be a valuable addition to current food safety protocols, with potential application in investigating toxic residues in agricultural entities.

Hyphenated liquid electrode glow discharge-dielectric barrier discharge molecular emission spectrometry for determination of dithiocarbamates

A hyphenated liquid electrode glow discharge (LEGD)-dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) molecular emission spectrometer was constructed and used as a novel liquid chromatography (LC) detector for dithiocarbamates (DTC) determination. The LEGD was used as an acidolysis reactor for the in-situ transformation of DTCs into CS2 with high efficiencies of 74.11-97.98%. The DBD was used to excite CS2 gas to generate a specific molecular emission at 257.94 nm. The linear correlation coefficient of the method was > 0.99 from 1 to 200 μg mL-1. The detection limits ranged from 0.1 to 0.3 μg mL-1 with 76-119% recovery and relative standard deviations of 0.2-8.5%. Moreover, the hyphenated microplasma spectrometer achieved low power consumption, low temperature, immediate acidolysis, and high transformational efficiency, and can detect each DTC when combined with LC.

Biomedical and catalytic applications of agri-based biosynthesized silver nanoparticles

Nanotechnology has been recognized as the emerging field for the synthesis, designing, and manipulation of particle structure at the nanoscale. Its rapid development is also expected to revolutionize industries such as applied physics, mechanics, chemistry, and electronics engineering with suitably tailoring various nanomaterials. Inorganic nanoparticles such as silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) have garnered more interest with their diverse applications. In correspondence to green chemistry, researchers prioritize green synthetic techniques over conventional ones due to their eco-friendly and sustainable potential. Green-synthesized NPs have proven more beneficial than those synthesized by conventional methods because of capping by secondary metabolites. The present study reviews the various means being used by the researchers for the green synthesis of Ag-NPs. The morphological characteristics of these NPs as obtained from numerous characterization techniques have been explored. The potential applications of bio-synthesized Ag-NPs viz. Antimicrobial, antioxidant, catalytic, and water remediation along with the plausible mechanisms have been discussed. In addition, toxicity analysis and biomedical applications of these NPs have also been reviewed to provide a detailed overview. The study signifies that biosynthesized Ag-NPs can be efficiently used for various applications in the biomedical and industrial sectors as an environment-friendly and efficient tool.

Quantitative Detection of Amino Acids and Carnitine in Human Blood and Quality Control of Peptide Drugs

In order to deal with the biochemical metabolic disorder and the lack of end metabolites caused by hereditary metabolic diseases, a quantitative detection method of amino acids and carnitine in human blood and the quality control method of polypeptide drugs were proposed. First, a method for the detection of 10 amino acids and 32 acylcarnitine metabolites in human blood was established and analyzed by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Through the experimental research on typical peptide drugs, combined with the classical synthesis process and the PLS-DA model of human body in different regions, the relevant detection methods for the quality control of peptide drugs were established, which provided a reference for the formulation of peptide drug quality standards. The experimental results show that the quantitative detection method proposed in this paper can effectively detect the content of most amino acids and acylcarnitine. The classical detection method achieved a loss of 16.74% smaller mass-to-charge ratio, and based on this, the quantitative standard for polypeptide drug delivery was determined, which verifies the correctness and superiority of the detection method in this paper.

Applications of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy in environmental detection

As the human population grows, the anthropogenic impacts from various agricultural and industrial processes produce unwanted contaminants in the environment. The accurate, sensitive and rapid detection of such contaminants is vital for human health and safety. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is a valuable analytical tool with wide applications in environmental contaminant monitoring. The aim of this review is to summarize recent advancements within SERS research as it applies to environmental detection, with a focus on research published or accessible from January 2021 through December 2021 including early-access publications. Our goal is to provide a wide breadth of information that can be used to provide background knowledge of the field, as well as inform and encourage further development of SERS techniques in protecting environmental quality and safety. Specifically, we highlight the characteristics of effective SERS nanosubstrates, and explore methods for the SERS detection of inorganic, organic, and biological contaminants including heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, plastic particles, synthetic dyes, pesticides, viruses, bacteria and mycotoxins. We also discuss the current limitations of SERS technologies in environmental detection and propose several avenues for future investigation. We encourage researchers to fill in the identified gaps so that SERS can be implemented in a real-world environment more effectively and efficiently, ultimately providing reliable and timely data to help and make science-based strategies and policies to protect environmental safety and public health.

Rapid field trace detection of pesticide residue in food based on surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy is an alternative detection tool for monitoring food security. However, there is still a lack of a conclusion of SERS detection with respect to pesticides and real sample analysis, and the summary of intelligent algorithms in SERS is also a blank. In this review, a comprehensive report of pesticides detection using SERS technology is given. The SERS detection characteristics of different types of pesticides and the influence of substrate on inspection are discussed and compared by the typical ways of classification. The key points, including the progress in real sample analysis and Raman data processing methods with intelligent algorithm, are highlighted. Lastly, major challenges and future research trends of SERS analysis of pesticide residue are also addressed. SERS has been proven to be a powerful technique for rapid test of residue pesticides in complex food matrices, but there still is a tremendous development space for future research.

In silico prediction, characterization and molecular docking studies on Glutathione-S-transferase as a molecular sieve for toxic agrochemicals explored in survey of North Indian farmers

All across the globe, India is considered as an agricultural nation because its agro products drive the economy. An increase in population growth and a hike in food demands lead to the use of hazardous chemicals in farm fields. An in-depth field survey in Northern India was conducted to understand the types of agrochemicals that were used, farmers' knowledge about their safe handling, and their practices on its usage. Ninety-two responders (primarily farmers) from 37 districts of 12 states were interviewed to collect the information. The library containing 58 compounds as toxic spray constituents were developed and further screened in-silico for ADMET, drug-likeness, toxicity prediction, and molecular docking against their target actions in the human system. Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) was selected as target protein showing the best-docked score with Bordeaux, Indoxacarb, Cyphenothrin, Deltamethrin, and Beta-cyfluthrin. The study revealed various adverse effects on human health and advocated provisions of alternative solutions such as using GST as a binding agents to hold the toxic chemicals out of living system and eventually saves valuable lives of the farmers.