Determination of the Variations of Metalaxyl Residue in Cucumbers Grown under Modern and Traditional Greenhouse Conditions

Vegetable crops are exposed to repeated spraying against the pests and diseases during the growing sessions. Crops such as greenhouse cucumber are usually harvested a short time after spraying, bearing a high level of pesticides with them. This fact justifies a research on this problem. This research was carried out to determine the effects of metalaxyl (a fungicide commonly used in greenhouse) residue in cucumbers grown under traditional and modern greenhouse conditions. Cucumber plants were sprayed with two different doses: 1/1 000 and 2/1000 metalaxyl in modern and traditional greenhouses. Samples were collected 1, 2, 4, 7, 10, 14, 21 and 28 days after spraying with metalaxyl. The fungicide residue was extracted, cleaned up by TLC and the final solution was analyzed by HPLC. Data were analyzed statistically by t-test (paired observations) and Duncans multiple range test. The results revealed that the amount of metalaxyl residues increased in the first four days following spraying. This amount of the residue was 10 times higher than MRL (0.5 mg/kg), while a lower level of MRL (0.5 mg/kg) was detected 21 days after the application. Results also showed that a lower dose of application left a higher residual level than the higher one. On the other hand, no significant differences (p<0.05) were found between the amounts of residues in peeled and unpeeled cucumbers. Thus, fruit peeling does not reduce the fungicide residue in cucumber. Also, there were no significant differences (p<0.05) between the results obtained from modern and traditional greenhouses. Therefore, cucumber must either be harvested before or at least 14 days after spraying with metalaxyl.