Issue 16, 2015

A smartphone-readable barcode assay for the detection and quantitation of pesticide residues

Abstract

In this paper, we present a smartphone-readable barcode assay for the qualitative detection of methyl parathion residues, a toxic organophosphorus pesticide that is popularly used in agriculture worldwide. The detection principle is based on the irreversible inhibition of the enzymatic activity of acetylcholinesterase (AchE) by methyl parathion; AchE catalytically hydrolyzes acetylthiocholine iodine to thiocholine that in turn dissociates dithiobis-nitrobenzoate to produce a yellow product (deprotonated thio-nitrobenzoate). The yellow intensity of the product was confirmed to be inversely dependent on the concentration of the pesticide. We have designed a barcode-formatted assay chip by using a PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) channel plate (as the reaction reservoir), situated under a printed partial barcode, to complete the whole barcode such that it can be directly read by a barcode scanning app installed on a smartphone. The app is able to qualitatively present the result of the pesticide test; the absence or a low concentration of methyl parathion results in the barcode reading as “−”, identifying the test as negative for pesticides. Upon obtaining a positive result (the app reads a “+” character), the captured image can be further analyzed to quantitate the methyl parathion concentration in the sample. Besides the portability and simplicity, this mobile-app based colorimetric barcode assay compares favorably with the standard spectrophotometric method.

Graphical abstract: A smartphone-readable barcode assay for the detection and quantitation of pesticide residues

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
03 May 2015
Accepted
01 Jun 2015
First published
01 Jun 2015

Analyst, 2015,140, 5518-5525

A smartphone-readable barcode assay for the detection and quantitation of pesticide residues

J. Guo, J. X. H. Wong, C. Cui, X. Li and H. Yu, Analyst, 2015, 140, 5518 DOI: 10.1039/C5AN00874C

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