Effect of plasma activated water and buffer solution on fungicide degradation from tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) fruit

Murtaza Ali; Jun-Hu Cheng; Da-Wen Sun

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.129195

Effect of plasma activated water and buffer solution on fungicide degradation from tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) fruit

Food Chem. 2021 Jul 15:350:129195. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.129195. Epub 2021 Feb 6.

Authors

Murtaza Ali¹, Jun-Hu Cheng¹, Da-Wen Sun²

Affiliations

¹ School of Food Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China; Academy of Contemporary Food Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center, Guangzhou 510006, China; Engineering and Technological Research Centre of Guangdong Province on Intelligent Sensing and Process Control of Cold Chain Foods, & Guangdong Province Engineering Laboratory for Intelligent Cold Chain Logistics Equipment for Agricultural Products, Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Centre, Guangzhou 510006, China.
² School of Food Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China; Academy of Contemporary Food Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center, Guangzhou 510006, China; Engineering and Technological Research Centre of Guangdong Province on Intelligent Sensing and Process Control of Cold Chain Foods, & Guangdong Province Engineering Laboratory for Intelligent Cold Chain Logistics Equipment for Agricultural Products, Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Centre, Guangzhou 510006, China; Food Refrigeration and Computerized Food Technology, University College Dublin, National University of Ireland, Agriculture and Food Science Centre, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland. Electronic address: dawen.sun@ucd.ie.

PMID: 33636620
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.129195

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of plasma-activated liquid (PAL) including plasma-activated water (PAW) and plasma-activated buffer solution (PABS) for the reduction of chlorothalonil (CTL) and thiram (THM) pesticide residues on tomato fruit. Results revealed that the PAL obtained by using atmospheric air as the feed gas, CTL residues were decreased to 85.3% and 74.2% and THM residues decreased to 79.47 and 72.21% after treatments with PAW₁₀ and PABS₁₀, respectively, and increasing the activation time caused a significant reduction in fungicide residues. In addition, CTL and THM residues were also decreased while increasing the activation time of PAL using Ar/O₂ as the feed gas, the concentrations of the CTL residues were decreased to 75.07 and 69.89% for PAW₁₀ and PABS₁₀, respectively and THM residues decreased to 65.89 and 61.91% for PAW₁₀ and PABS₁₀, respectively. Oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) and electrical conductivity (EC) were increased significantly after plasma treatment, while pH values of both solutions were decreased significantly with activation time. NO₃^- and NO₂^- concentrations of PAW increased significantly, while for PABS, NO₃^- concentration decreased but NO₂^-, with increasing the plasma activation time. Additionally, washing with PAW and PABS caused no notable negative impact on tomato fruit. Results confirmed that PAL treatments showed a significant reduction of CTL and THM fungicide residues (p < 0.05) in tomato without affecting the quality.

Keywords: Degradation; Fungicide; HPLC; Plasma-activated buffer solution; Plasma-activated water; Radiofrequency plasma jet; Tomato.

MeSH terms

Buffers
Fruit / chemistry*
Fungicides, Industrial / chemistry*
Pesticide Residues / analysis
Plasma Gases / chemistry*
Solanum lycopersicum / chemistry*
Solutions
Water / chemistry*

Substances

Buffers
Fungicides, Industrial
Pesticide Residues
Plasma Gases
Solutions
Water