Deep eutectic solvents as green alternative for removal of pesticides in environment and food matrices: A mini review

Pesticides have detrimental effects on organisms and environment. Due to extensive usage of pesticides from various group, such as triazines, organophosphates and pyrethroids in various industries, the occurrence of these pollutants had become prominent in the food matrices and environment, especially in soil and water samples. Many pesticides are detected above maximum residue limits (MRL) and threaten the well-being of humans and other living organisms. Cancer, endocrine disturbance and reproductive issues are some of the health conditions associated with the prolonged exposure to pesticides and other organic pollutants. Therefore, a lot of removal techniques had been developed and applied to ensure effective removal of these compounds. Extraction method shows promising results as it is simple, easy to design and has high relative recovery for target analytes. The utilization of deep eutectic solvents (DES) in extraction of pesticides had gained significant interest among scientists as it produced satisfactory results in addition to abiding by the principles of Green Chemistry. A wide range of pollutants are reported to be successfully removed from food, water and soil samples with the application of DES. In the present review, the focus is to discuss the extraction mainly by microextraction technique with the parameters affecting the extraction process, such as volume of DES used, temperature of solvent, pH value and extraction time were investigated.