The concentrations of organochlorine insecticides (DDT and heptachlor) were investigated to estimate the effect of various washing and boiling/cooking to elucidate the concentration level we intake actually. For this study five most popular dry fish samples namely bombay duck (loittya), ribbon fish (chhuri), shrimp (chingri), chinese pomfret (rupchanda) and Indian salmon (lakhua) were analyzed. The highest concentrations of DDT and heptachlor were found 737.2 ppb (Indian salmon, normal) and 44.8 ppb (shrimp, normal) respectively; after boiling treatment a big amount was washed out and remained only 135.5 and 16.9 ppb respectively. Boiling treatment was found more effective than the others.

BackgroundMedicinal herbs are used for the treatment of different ailments since antiquity. Different parts of Anethum sowa L. is used in folk medicine as a carminative for the treatment of flatulence, colic and hiccups of infants and children, antioxidant, antimicrobial and antispasmodic agent. The aim of our present study is to evaluate the chemical composition of the essential oil, proximate and elemental composition, amino acid, fatty acid profile and thermal behaviour of its root part as well as different pharmacological activities like antioxidant, antimicrobial and cytotoxicity of the root essential oil.MethodsThe air-dried roots of Anethum sowa L. were subjected to hydro-distillation to yield the essential oil. The antioxidant activity of the essential oil was studied by DPPH radical scavenging activity. The antimicrobial activity was tested against four Gram-positive, six Gram-negative bacteria and four fungi species. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and Minimum bacterial concentration (MBC) for each examined microorganism were determined using the micro-dilution method. The LC50 value of the oil was also evaluated by brine shrimp lethality assay. The subsequent proximate analysis was also done by AOAC methods. The elemental analysis of the root powder was analysed by ICP-MS, AAS and FP system. The fatty acid was extracted by hot and cold extraction method and the analyses were carried out by GC. The amino acid profile was done by the amino acid analyzer. The DTA, DTG and TG of the root powder were taken by the thermogravimetric analyzer.ResultsA total of 24 constituents was identified and quantified in the essential oil and its water extract portion by GC and GC-MS. Apiol (81.99 and 74.779%) was found the highest phenylpropanoid constituent followed by m-diaminobenzene (10.446 and 8.778%) in the essential oil and aqueous extract portion. On the other hand, β-butyrolactone (5.13%) and isobutyl acetone (3.73%) were found in the major constituents in the water extract part. The IC50 value of the essential oil was found to be 3.07 mg/mL by DPPH radical assay methods. The LC50 value of the brine shrimp cytotoxicity assay of the essential oil was observed at 0.81 μg/mL. The essential oil showed better activity on Gram-negative bacteria than Gram-positive bacteria and fungi. The proximate composition showed that root contained 5.29% ash, 2.01% protein, 54.09% crude fibre, 0.15% essential oil and 1.14% fatty oil for hot extract and 0.23% for cold extract on the dried basis. The palmitic (33.81 & 31.58%) and linoleic acid (30.03 & 23.79%) were the major saturated and unsaturated fatty acids in the cold and hot extracted root powder respectively. Ca (23,600 mg/kg), Mg (7620.33 mg/kg) and K (1286.15 mg/kg) were the most predominant elements followed by Ni (1187.30 mg/kg), Se (913.79 mg/kg), Li (317.84 mg/kg), Na (288.72 mg/kg) and Fe (206.88 mg/kg). The toxic elements were found to be within the permissible limit. Glutamic acid (19.37%), glycine (14.53%) and lysine (17.08%) were found as the major amino ...

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The concentrations of organochlorine insecticides DDT (Dichloro diphenyl trichloro ethane) and Heptachlor were investigated to estimate the current status of insecticides used in dry fish in different seasons and different species. Six most popular species of dry fishes namely Bombay duck (Loittya), Ribbon fish (Chhuri), Shrimp (Chingri), Hilsha shed (Ilish), Chinese pomfret (Rupchanda) and Indian salmon (Lakhua) were collected from Asadgonj (whole sell market for dry fish) of Chittagong, Bangladesh at different seasons, six samples at winter season (December) and six same samples at rainy season (July). The range of DDT concentration at winter was found 3.6 ug kg-1 to 250.8 ug kg-1 and at rainy season the range of concentration was found 11.1 ug kg-1 to 1107.4 ug kg-1. The range of Heptachlor concentration at winter was found 0.4 ug kg-1 to 2.5 ug kg-1 and at rainy season was found 1.1 ug kg-1 to 37.8 ug kg-1. The concentrations of DDT and Heptachlor were much higher in the samples of rainy season than the same samples of the winter.

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