Bedside Diagnosis of Commonly Used Pesticides by Thin Layer Chromatography

Pesticides are reckoned to be the most important source of poisoning worldwide, with a high incidence and fatality rate. Agrochemical pesticides are a major public health problem throughout the developing world. Organophosphate pesticides were responsible for the majority of deaths in most series of poisoning cases, particularly those in rural areas. The reported fatality in hospital-based surveys was as high as 46%.

It is also evident that pesticides form the bulk of cases admitted to hospitals with a history of poisoning. The earliest that reports of chemical analysis samples of gastric lavage, blood and urine are received from government forensic science laboratories to which they are sent is 6 months, by which time the victims are either discharged or dead. On the other hand, the maximum time required for the qualitative assay of a poison by using thin layer chromatography is 2 hours. By this study, we were, therefore, trying to establish easy, rapid and costeffective methods for the early diagnosis of cases of specific poisoning by pesticides, which will help attending physicians to immediately institute specific treatment instead of relying merely on history, and symptoms and signs.