Determination of Pesticide Residues on Date Palm in the UAE

Abstract

Pesticides have been used on plants to protect them and their fruits since ancient times,But we are not always aware of the types of pesticides and chemicals used and how dangerous can they be to us the consumers. In this research we focused on the types of chemicals used on palm trees and dates as a deterent against pests in general , through disection and extraction of the upper most layer and isolating it we were able to use a filtration method to get rid of all water , enabling us to analyize the chemicals in the GC-MS (Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry) (Fussell, and Hempstead, 2016 and EL-Saeid and AL-Dosari, 2010). Our findings were astonishing we found chemicals that were not supposed to be there like Furane and pheromones, among so many more that are carcinogenic and or highly toxic We included all the graphs concerning the chemicals and their concentrations as well. We also discussed the most common five chemicals individually and their effects.