| Abstract: |
Oregano is known to be vulnerable to adulteration, but a new study shows that aside from ripping consumers off, fraudulent samples could also be damaging to health. Researchers from Northern Ireland and the Czech Republic examined 400 samples of oregano collected across Europe and used mass spectrometry techniques to test them for 55 pesticide residues, wanting to see if there were differences between adulterated and unadulterated products. What they found should make consumers think twice about where the source heir herbs. The set of 34 adulterated samples tended to have higher numbers of pesticides resent, in greater quantities, and also tested positive more frequently for insecticides than the 42 genuine samples. The differences mean it might be possible to distinguish between genuine and untainted samples using residue profiling – which could be an advance on current techniques which include visual inspection and microscopy that require highly trained analysts. |
