Profiling of pesticides and pesticide transformation products in Chinese herbal teas

Chao Feng; Qian Xu; Xinlei Qiu; Yu'e Jin; Jieyun Ji; Yuanjie Lin; Sunyang Le; Liming Xue; Yuhang Chen; Jianwen She; Ping Xiao; Dasheng Lu; Guoquan Wang

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.132431

Profiling of pesticides and pesticide transformation products in Chinese herbal teas

Food Chem. 2022 Jul 30:383:132431. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.132431. Epub 2022 Feb 12.

Authors

Chao Feng¹, Qian Xu¹, Xinlei Qiu¹, Yu'e Jin¹, Jieyun Ji², Yuanjie Lin¹, Sunyang Le¹, Liming Xue¹, Yuhang Chen¹, Jianwen She³, Ping Xiao⁴, Dasheng Lu⁵, Guoquan Wang⁶

Affiliations

¹ Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shanghai 200336, China; State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Health Impact Assessment of Emerging Contaminants, Shanghai 200336, China.
² Shanghai Changning Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shanghai 200051, China.
³ California Department of Public Health, Richmond, CA 94804, USA.
⁴ Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shanghai 200336, China.
⁵ Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shanghai 200336, China; State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Health Impact Assessment of Emerging Contaminants, Shanghai 200336, China. Electronic address: ludasheng@scdc.sh.cn.
⁶ Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shanghai 200336, China; State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Health Impact Assessment of Emerging Contaminants, Shanghai 200336, China. Electronic address: wangguoquan@scdc.sh.cn.

PMID: 35180605
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.132431

Abstract

Herbal teas have potential health benefits, but they also contain a variety of pesticides and pesticide transformation products (PTPs) that might brings health risks. Our study maps the pesticides and PTPs in two herbal teas (chrysanthemum and Lusterleaf Holly) from two main producing areas in China. Almost all 122 samples contain pesticides, with concentration ranging from 0.0005 to 10.305 mg/kg. Nearly 40% carbendazim and imidacloprid in chrysanthemum teas and λ-cyhalothrin in Lusterleaf Holly have higher concentration levels than the values permitted in EC Regulation No. 396/2005. Distinct distributions of pesticides were found in different teas and production areas. Eight PTPs were identified along with their parents, and were confirmed using a biosynthetic strategy. Acute, chronic and cumulative health risk assessments of pesticides revealed acceptable results. Our study uncovers the profile of pesticides in herbal teas, and provides new insight into discovering the potential environmental pollution and food contaminants.

Keywords: Biosynthetic strategy; Herbal tea; Pesticide; Pesticide transformation products; Risk assessment.

MeSH terms

China
Chrysanthemum*
Pesticide Residues* / analysis
Pesticides* / analysis
Risk Assessment
Teas, Herbal* / analysis

Substances

Pesticide Residues
Pesticides
Teas, Herbal