Pesticide Residue Analysis in Tea Using LC-MS/MS– QuEChERS Technique

Abstract

Tea, the dried leaves of the plant of Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze, Theaceae, is an aromatic beverage that is consumed worldwide. Due to its properties of antioxidant, antimicrobial, anticarcinogenic and antiinflammatory, tea has attracted great attention. However, tea farming is sensitive to many kinds of diseases, pests and weeds, which causes the widely use of pesticides. Until now, more than 300 kinds of pesticide residues in tea have been. Massive pesticide exposure can lead to pesticide accumulation in the body, which harms human health and causes various diseases, thus many countries have established maximum residue limits for many pesticides. Meanwhile, tremendous efforts have been performed in order to develop analytical methods for pesticides determination in tea. Hence this research focuses to establish High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) method for determining the residues of pesticides in tea.