• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.35-42
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• 2012

This study was carried out to elucidate the residual characteristics and calculate processing factors of difenoconazole in ginseng and its processed products, such as dried ginseng, red ginseng and their water and alcohol extracts. The pesticide was sprayed onto the ginseng according to its pre-harvest intervals in 2009 (four-year-old ginseng) and 2010 (five-year-old ginseng). Harvested ginseng was processed to dried ginseng, red ginseng and their extracts according to the commercially well-qualified conventional methods provided by the Korea Ginseng Corporation. Limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantitation (LOQ) of difenoconazole in fresh ginseng were 0.001 and 0.003 mg/kg, respectively. In case of processed ginseng products, their levels were 0.002 and 0.007 mg/kg, respectively. Concentration of difenoconazole in both fresh ginseng and its processed products increased with the experimental period. Processing factors, calculated as a ratio of difenoconazole concentration in processed products to fresh ginseng were found to be 1.71 to 2.17 and 1.62 to 2.03 in case of dried and red ginseng, respectively, while those for their extracts ranged from 1.76 to 2.98. In case of five-year-old dried ginseng and red ginseng as well as their extracts, the ranges of processing factor of difenoconazole were found to be 2.9 to 3.1, 1.9 to 2.2 and 2.4 to 4.7, respectively.