Contamination of Rice and Wheat Grains with Residues of HCH and DDT

The market samples of food grains: rice and wheat were monitored for the nature and extent of the residues of HCH, DDT and their bioactive isomers/metabolites at periodic intervals in Bangalore City. All the samples of rice and wheat from different markets were found contaminated with total HCH residues ranging between 0.0049 to 0.0505 ppm in rice and 0.0034 to 0.9312 ppm in wheat. The main contaminants being α and β isomers of HCH, while γ isomer was recovered from some samples of the two markets only. DDT residues analysis for p,p’-DDE, p,p’-DDD and p,p’-DDT could not be detected from any of the samples of the two commodities. The extent of HCH residues contamination is alarming with respect to prescribed maximum residue limit.