Organochlorine and Organophosphate Pesticides Determination in Plants Used for Cosmetic Purposes

Recent information about the presence of pesticides in plants used for cosmetic purposes has been reported in the media and on the internet. Pesticides are toxic substances applied on plants that are going to be food or other products like cosmetics. Therefore it is not difficult to understand why people are concerned about these substances. Our goal was to determine the organochlorine and organophosphate pesticides occurrence in five plant materials used in the composition of value-added organic cosmetic products manufactured in Constanta county, Romania. The studied plant materials were sea buckthorn fruits, snowdrops and violets flowers, poplar buds and sea buckthorn male buds. The trace pesticides concentrations were determined using gas chromatographic technique, after the extraction and cleanup steps. There have been found 15 types of organochlorine pesticides and 8 types of organophosphate pesticides. The total organochlorine pesticides concentrations varied between 0.0173 and 0.4604 mg/kg dry plant and the total organophosphate pesticides concentrations between 0.0028 and 2.5900 mg/kg dry plant. All individual concentrations of determined pesticides ranged below the limits established by EC regulations for plants used as animal feed.