~ 794 ~ Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry 2018; 7(4): 794-796 E-ISSN: 2278-4136 P-ISSN: 2349-8234 JPP 2018; 7(4): 794-796 Received: 03-05-2018 Accepted: 08-06-2018 Basant Kumar Bhinchhar Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India Vinod Kumar Paswan Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India Satya Prakash Yadav Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India Prity Singh Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India Correspondence Vinod Kumar Paswan Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India Persistent HCH and DDT residues in green fodders of Varanasi Basant Kumar Bhinchhar, Vinod Kumar Paswan, Satya Prakash Yadav and Prity Singh Abstract The ill effects of green revolution include residues of extensively used chemical pesticides in various environmental components. The present study was designed to analyze the levels of organochlorine pesticide residues in green fodder samples collected from different localities of Varanasi. α-HCH concentration (mg/kg) in green fodder obtained from different blocks were 0.00193 (Baragaon), 0.00036 (Cholapur), 0.00067 (Arazilie) and 0.00187 (Harhua). Among HCH isomers γ-HCH was more persistent and α-HCH was less persistent. DDT and its isomers present in all blocks but far below from the MRL. highest concentration of 4,4’DDE and 2,4’DDD, were present in Harhua, Araziline block respectively whereas 2,4’DDT and 4,4’DDT were present in Baragaon. Among all blocks Baragaon showed highest concentration for DDT isomers. Keywords: green revolution, pesticides, organochlorine, DDT, HCH Introduction India with about 4% of the world’s cropped area shares around 1.7% of global pesticide consumption of the total 54,135 MT technical grade pesticide consumption in India in agriculture during 1999–2000, 60% were insecticides, 21% fungicides, 14% herbicides and 5% others. The percentage of organochlorines during this period has decreased from 40 to 14.5% accompanied by a sharp increase in consumption of organophosphates from 30 to 74% (Agnihotri, 2000) [1] . The work reported from various parts of country has shown the presence of persistent and fat soluble organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) such as DDT and HCH isomers in dairy milk (John, Bakore, & Bhatnagar, 2001; Mukherjee & Gopal, 1993) [7, 10] . The most hazardous pesticides are still used in developing countries while many of these are now banned or heavily regulated in developed countries. For example, Thailand imports large quantities of World Health Organization (WHO) I and II (most hazardous) pesticides (Poapongsakorn et al., 1999) [15] . Hazardous pesticides are mostly prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, where regulations are relatively weak (Paarlberg, 1993) [13] . India is now both the largest manufacturer and consumer of pesticides in southern Asia. Despite the proliferation of different types of pesticides, organochlorines such as HCH (α-HCH, β-HCH, γ-HCH, δ-HCH) and DDT still account for two-thirds of the total consumption in the country because of their low cost and versatility in action against various pests. Since these compounds are highly persistent and strongly lipophilic, they tend to accumulate in body fats including breast milk (Yakushiji, 1988) [18] . In spite of their toxicity and adverse human health effects, many developing nations continue to use these chemicals to combat the pests of agricultural and public health importance. A few studies indicated previously the contamination of Indian food and feeds by HCH and DDT (Noronha et al., 1980, Dikshith et al., 1989a,b, Battu et al., 1989, Kaphalia et al., 1990) [12, 4, 5, 2, 8] . These works were concerned mainly with HCH and DDT in limited cases of foodstuffs from a few locations. Material and Methods Total 60 green fodder samples collected from four blocks of Varanasi. From each of the 4 blocks 5 villages were selected randomly for sample collection. From each of the selected 5 villages green fodder samples were collected one time in each season (winter, rainy and summer). Approximately, 250 g of fodder samples were collected in sterilized polyethylene packs, packed and transported to lab. Samples were subjected to analysis within 24 h from their arrival. Fodder samples were chopped, and 7.5 g of sample was taken into 50 ml centrifuge tubes and 30 ml of acetonitrile was added and shaken well. The sample was homogenized at 14000-15000 RPM for 2-3 min then 3 g of sodium chloride was added, mixed well by shaking gently then it was centrifuged at 2500-3000 RPM for 3 min to separate the