Residue analysis of the systemic insecticide carbofuran in some crops and its safety evaluation

In order to ascertain the safety of the systemic insecticide carbofuran-treated crops, samples of garlic, peanut and potato were collected randomly from markets located in the main producing areas and analyzed for the residue of carbofuran and its main metabolite, 3-hydroxycarbofuran. The in vitro metabolism of carbofuran in phosphate buffer extracts of the crops was investigated. Two (M-12 and M-16) out of 20 mature garlic samples contained 0.13 and 0.07 mg/kg of carbohran, respectively, showing a detection incidence of 10%. The residue levels were less than the maximum residue limit (0.5 ppm) set by Korean Food and Drug Administration. Only one sample of mature garlic (M-12) out of 20 contained 0.13 mg/kg of 3-hydroxycarbofuran. The residues of carbofuran and 3-hydroxycarbofuran in the immature garlic, peanut and potato samples were less than the detection limits, 0.02 mg/kg for carbofuran and 0.06 mg/kg for 3-hydroxycarbofuran. The application of carbofuran to the fields of garlic, peanut and potato would be safe, considering that the estimated maximum acceptable daily intake of carbofuran from garlic was 0.0013 mg which is 0.24% of the maximum acceptable daily intake (0.55 mg). Carbofuran was hydrolyzed in vitro mainly to carbofuran phenol (m/z 164) in the respective phosphate buffer extracts of the three crops in contrast to the major oxidative metabolism in situ. The amount of the metabolite increased with the incubation time.