Situation analysis and standard formulation of pesticide residues in traditional Chinese medicines / 中国中药杂志

ABSTRACT

Chinese Pharmacopoeia provides nine pesticide Maximum Residual Limits(MRLs) of traditional Chinese medicines(TCMs), The number of pesticides used in production are far more than those listed in pharmacopoeia. The lack of the standards make it's hard to reflect the real situation of pesticide residues in TCMs correctly. The paper is aimed to analyze the data of pesticide residues in TCMs from 7 089 items in 140 reports, and judging the exceedance rate of pesticides in TCMs using the MRLs of European pharmacopoeia，which is widely accepted in many countries. The results show that：①Pesticide residues in 18 kinds of TCMs are higher than MRLs，while in 137 kinds are below MRLs, such as Atractylodis Macrocephalae Rhizoma, Menthae Haplocalycis Herba and Fritillariae Thunbergii Bulbus. The average exceedance rate of all TCMs is 1.72%. The average exceedance rates of organochlorine, organophosphorus and pyrethroid are 2.26%, 1.51%, 0.37%，respectively. ②The average exceedance rate of pesticides is 2.00%, and the exceedance rate is more than 5%, accounting for 8.33%, the exceedance rate is between 1%-5%, accounting for 18.75%. the exceedance rate is between 0%-1%, accounting for 18.75%. The remaining 29 kinds of pesticides were not exceeded, accounting for 60.42%.Some reports like Greenpeace's organization exaggerated the pesticide residues in TCMs.But the pesticide residue question is still worthy of attention, so we proposed to amend the Chinese Pharmacopoeia pesticide residues standards, to increase the pesticide species of traditional Chinese medicine in production on the basis of retaining the existing types of pesticide residues, to strengthen the system research of pesticide residues in TCMs, providing a basis for making standard and promoting import and export trade in TCMs.