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日本語

Pesticides play an important role in increasing the productivity of agricultural products. At the same time, the detection and safety control of the residual pesticides is also necessary because of their toxicity. The residual pesticide in agricultural products has been mainly measured by instrumental analysis such as GC-MS and LC-MS so far.

The procedure of using instruments to perform an accurate detection analysis of residual pesticides in agricultural products is well established. This kind of instrumental analysis is, however, expensive, time consuming, and requires specific training. Thus, it would obviously be beneficial to be able to detect residual pesticides with simple, low cost operation, allowing rapid analysis without any special skill.

In this regard, we have established immuochromatography kits and an immunosensor based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR-sensor) for the detection of residual pesticides in agricultural products. When an antibody of the target pesticide is applied to the immunosensor, hapten synthesis is required because of the small size of the target molecule. This is one of the most important steps for preparing a highly sensitive monoclonal antibody for target molecule. We have synthesized more than 20 pesticide haptens and their antibodies at Toyohashi University of Technology and the Advanced Scientific Technology & Management Research Institute of Kyoto and Research & Development Division, Horiba, Ltd. The resulting monoclonal antibody was successfully set up as an immuochromatography kit. The kit visually displays the target pesticide by colorizing and also immediately determines the concentration of the residual pesticide. All it requires is to take a photo using a standard mobile phone camera. (Fig. 2)

Immuochromatography kits were found to be a rapid, highly target selective and low cost method for residual pesticide detection. This tool can be utilized anytime, anywhere, for self-managing the safety control of foods such as agricultural products. We believe that the cost performance and easy operation combined with high accuracy are great advantages compared to the standard instrument analysis. Furthermore, SPR-sensors can detect up to 6 different types of pesticide at the same time. The working sensitivity of these methods is up to 10ng/mL.These can be also applied to the safety control of agricultural products, especially in large-scale production areas. (Fig. 3)