Effects of dielectric barrier discharge cold plasma treatments on degradation of anilazine fungicide and quality of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) juice

The effect of cold plasma (CP) treatment on the degradation of anilazine fungicide in tomato juice was investigated. Anilazine solution of 5 mg/L was added to tomato juice samples and treated using a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) cold plasma (CP) system with exposure times of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 min. The gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry (GC‐MS) results showed that the reduction in anilazine in the tomato juice achieved 47% and 65% after treatments for 4 min and 5 min, respectively. The concentration of anilazine decreased significantly (P ≤ 0.05) with an increase in treatment time. Analysis of the quality attributes of tomato juice treated for 5 min showed that the quality of the treated juice remained acceptable with a slight decrease in pH from 4.28 to 4.18, an increase in total soluble solids (TSS) from 5.70 to 6.70 ◦Brix, an increase in the browning index from 2.35 to 4.54, a very low (but within the acceptable limit) total colour difference, and only minor changes in antioxidant capacity, total flavonoid and total phenolic content, as compared with the control samples. These results indicated that DBD cold plasma treatment could be an effective and rapid technique to degrade pesticide residues for the fruit juice industry. The overall summary of this study was presented in the graphical , which shows that 5 min treatment time using DBD gave the best decontamination of anilazine fungicide residues in tomato juice. Also, the structural breakdown of anilazine fungicide after treatment with plasma reactive oxygen species was presented as a possible degradation pathway.