VALIDATION OF THE METHOD FOR ANALYSING PESTICIDES IN TOMATOES IN THE VILLAGE OF PANDEAN AND THE EFFECT OF BOILING ON PESTICIDE LEVELS

The extensive use of pesticides in agricultural practices poses significant risks to human health due to the potential presence of chemical residues. Chronic exposure to pesticide residues has been associated with various adverse health effects, highlighting the importance of ensuring food safety, particularly for widely consumed vegetables such as tomatoes. Concerns have arisen regarding possible health effects linked to pesticide exposure, particularly from abamectin, one of the pesticides frequently applied by local farmers. However, a validated method to detect the residue of pesticides in tomatoes has not been established. This study aims to validate the method of analyzing abamectin in tomato samples and to determine whether there is an effect of boiling process. Tomato samples were obtained with sampling points arranged diagonally across the farmland in Pandean, Magelang, Indonesia. The samples were extracted with ethyl acetate, then cleaned up using column chromatography and analyzed with an HPLC-UV instrument. The chromatograms were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively to see the difference in abamectin pesticide levels between fresh and boiled tomato samples. This study found that the validation results showed that the HPLC-UV instrument met the test acceptance criteria with a linearity of 0.9977, LOD 0.06 μg/mL, LOQ 0.19 μg/mL, precision 2.43%, and recovery 92.73%-115.07%. The difference between fresh tomato samples and boiled tomato samples could not be statistically compared because no abamectin was found in the boiled tomatoes. Therefore, it can be concluded that the analysis method meets the test acceptance criteria and boiling is known to affect the level of abamectin.