Distribution and short-term dietary risk assessment of three pesticide residues in ginseng (Panax ginseng C. A. Mey)

To obtain the distribution behavior and dietary risk of pesticide residues in different parts of ginseng (Panax ginseng C. A. Mey), two-, three- and four-year-old ginseng from Jidong city and two-, three-, four-, five- and six-year-old ginseng from Hulin city, Heilongjiang Province, were sampled. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method was established for the determination of pentachloronitrobenzene, hexachlorobenzene and chlorpyrifos residues in root-heads, taproots and fibrous roots of ginseng, and the short-term dietary risks of all samples were evaluated. The detection rate of pentachloronitrobenzene was 74% of total 72 ginseng samples, and the detected residues were 0.005-0.062 mg/kg. The detection rate of hexachlorobenzene was 78%, and the residues were 0.057-0.150 mg/kg. The detection rate of chlorpyrifos was 61%, and the detected residues were 0.018-0.073 mg/kg. According to the Chinese Pharmacopoeia (2020), the maximum residue limit (MRL) of pentachloronitrobenzene and hexachlorobenzene was 0.1 mg/kg. Among the detected samples, the residues of hexachlorobenzene in five- and six-year-old ginseng root-heads and the six-year-old ginseng taproots from Hulin city exceeded the MRL, with the exceeding rates of 2.8%, 5.6% and 2.8%, respectively. The pesticide residues increased with the increase of growth year of ginseng. The accumulated pesticide residues in various parts of ginseng from high to low were root-heads, taproots and fibrous roots. The short-term risk quotient (RQST) was far less than 100%, which indicated that there was no unacceptable short-term dietary exposure risk to human body via ginseng.