Peroxidase activity as a biochemical marker of insecticide use in vegetables

Abstract

The insecticides use is important for crop improvement and protection, but in excessive amounts, they would induce a dysfunction of metabolic enzymatic systems in plant tissues, leading to undesirable qualitative changes. In this context, we are interested in peroxidase (POD), an important enzyme in plant physiology but whose activity seems to be conditioned by the presence of insecticides in the soil. This work aims to study the impact of locally used insecticides (chlorpyrifos and dimethoate) on the activity of POD in parsley, onion, celery and garlic grown in soils treated or not. POD extraction was performed using Tris-HCl buffer (pH 7.3); its activity was measured using the substrate o-dianisidine in the presence of H2O2. Our result showed that POD activity for insecticide treated parsley, celery and onions increased by 30 % 127 % and 341 % respectively, however did not change significantly for garlic. Thus, the action of these chemicals is not trivial because they may alter non-target pathways, especially when doses are not adjusted accordingly. We found that insecticide stress would increase POD activity in all vegetables except garlic, which showed tolerance to insecticides. Our findings suggest that organic farming conditions could minimize peroxidase activity in parsley, celery and onion. We add that overproduction of POD negatively affects the quality and reduces the shelf life of vegetables, thus would be a very interesting biomarker of insecticide stress.