Delhi Public School Bangalore East

Chemistry Investigatory Project(2023-24):

Study on presence of insecticides and pesticides on fruits and

vegetables

By: Swarit Samiran, Medhansh Garg

Class: XII L
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Acknowledgement

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my chemistry teacher

___________________ and lab assistant __________________ for their vital
support, guidance and encouragement without which this project would not have
come forth. I would also like to thank Ms. Manila Carvalho, our esteemed
principal, for her continued support and to provide the facilities required to execute
this project. Last, but not least, I would like to thank my parents for their undivided
support and interest which always inspires me.
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Index

1. Aim and Requirements

2. Procedure
3. Observation
4. Analysis and Findings
5. Bibliography
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Aim and Requirements

Aim
Study on presence of insecticides and pesticides on fruits and vegetables

Requirements
Mortar and pestle, beakers, funnel, glass rod, filter paper, china dish, water bath,
tripod stand, fusion tubes, knife, test tube, sample of fruits and vegetables, alcohol,
sodium metal, ferric chloride solution, ferrous sulphate crystals, distilled water,
dilute sulphuric acid
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Procedure

1. Take different kinds of fruit and vegetables and cut them into small pieces
separately.
2. Transfer the cut piece of various fruits and vegetables in mortar separately
and crush them.
3. Take different beakers of each kind of fruits and vegetables and place the
crushed fruit and vegetable in these beakers, and add 10 ml of alcohol to
each or these. Stir well and filter and collect the filtrate in separate china
dishes.
4. Evaporate the alcohol by heating china dishes one by one over a water bath
and let the residue dry in an oven.
5. Heat a small piece of dry sodium in a fusion tube, till it melts. Then add one
of the above residues from the china dish to the fusion tube and heat till red
hot. Drop the hot fusion tube in a china dish containing about 110ml of
distilled water. Break the tube and boil the contents of the china dish for
about 5 minutes to cool and filter the solution. Collect the filtrate.
6. To the filtrate add 1 ml freshly prepared ferrous sulphate solution and warm
the contents. Then, add 2-3 drops of ferric chloride solution and acidity with
the dil. Hydrochloric acid if a blue or green precipitate or colouration is
obtained, it indicates the presence of nitrogen containing insecticide.
7. Repeat the test of nitrogen for residue obtained from other fruits and
vegetable and record your observation
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Observations

Fruits/Vegetable Test for Nitrogen Presence of

insecticide/
pesticide
1. Tomato +ve Yes
2. Grapes +ve Yes
3. Carrot -ve No
4. Potato +ve Yes
5. Apple +ve Yes
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Analysis and Findings

Thus from the above experiment we conclude that the fruits and vegetables that we
consume especially grapes, tomato and potato contain nitrogen containing
insecticides and pesticides
The extent of discoloration indicates the amount of insecticides/ pesticide
containing nitrogen.
It was noted that apples had more contamination than other fruits and vegetables
taken as a sample.
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Bibliography

https://www.seminarsonly.com/Engineering-Projects/Chemistry/Pesticides-in-Fruit
s-and-Vegetables.php

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pesticide