Monitoring of pesticide amount in fruit and vegetables by a fluorescence-based sensor.

Faster, sensitive and real-time methods for detecting organophosphate (OP) pesticides are urged for monitoring of these widely spread contaminants. For this reason, several efforts have been addressed for the development of performant biosensors. The thermostable enzyme esterase-2 from (EST2), with a lipase-like Ser-His-Asp catalytic triad with a high affinity to OPs, is a promising candidate as a bioreceptor for biosensor development.

Monitoring of pesticide amount in water and drinkable food by a fluorescence-based biosensor.

The identification of pollutants is crucial to protect water resources and ensure food safety. The available analytical methodologies allow reliable detection of organic pollutants such as pesticides; however, there is the need for faster, direct and continuous methodologies for real-time monitoring of pesticides. Fluorescent-based biosensors have been recently proposed as a valid alternative due to their advantage of being easy, cheap and specific.