The monitoring of the counterfeit situation of a pesticide widely used in Egypt (abamectin) was done through the present study as seven samples of Abamectin formulations were collected from the Egyptian market. Packaging and labels were checked and analyzed by HPLC to determine the active ingredient content present in these samples. GC-MS and FTIR were used for additional analysis and detection of other active ingredients in the formulation.
Counterfeit pesticides were studied in Egypt by doing questionnaires for all workers in the pesticide system (farmer - trader - researchers in the pesticide field) and the results of these forms were analyzed to show the most dominant pesticides in Egypt, in addition to random purchase of pesticides from the Egyptian market and the most number of samples Is from (abamectin pesticide) (7 samples).
To obtain this number of abamectin formulations, 58 different pesticide formulations (16 different active ingredients) were collected from the Egyptian markets, and the share of abamectin was 7 samples (one active substance), representing 12.1% of the total tested samples.
The obtained results showed that Examination of Packaging and indicated that three samples were not registered through Egyptian Agricultural Pesticides Committee thus representing 42.86% of the total tested samples. The non-registered products are Komaktin Gold Plus, Super Vertimic and Abamectine Strela. Three samples have registration number as other formulations already registered in Ministry of Agriculture which are Abamectin Super, Farmactine and Abamectin power. The last product (Tinam) has the correct registration number (no.1391) and it is the same number used to register it in Ministry of agriculture.
The percentage of the active ingredient in 5 samples was less than the acceptable limits, The samples were (Abamectin super, Komaktin Gold Plus, Abamectin Power, Super vertimic and Abamectine strela) active ingredient content was 1.416, 0.64, 1.01, 0.2 and 0.12% respectively. One sample (Farmactine) didn't contain Abamectin, and the sample (Tinam) was within the acceptable limits (1.53%).
GC-MS used to determine the presence of any other materials or active ingredients within the samples. The result showed that
Abamectin Super sample contains (Lambda cyhalothrin at R.t. 29.512 min), Farmactine sample contains (Fenpropathrin at R.t. 28.634 min), Abamectin Power sample contains (Diazinon at R.t. 16.088 min and Cypermethrin at R.t. 26.554 min) and Super Vertimic sample contains (Fenpropathrin at R.t. 23.916 min and Lambda cyhalothrin at R.t. 34.85 min). Three products Komaktin Gold Plus, Tinam and Abamectine Strela didn't contain other active ingredients.
The physical properties of the studied samples before and after storage were determined through emulsion characteristic test and four samples (Abamectin super, Farmactine, Abamectin Power and Tinam) showed good emulsion characteristics before and after storage. Super vertimic and Abamectine strela samples showed poor emulsification characteristics before and after storage. Komaktin Gold Plus showed good emulsification before storage but poor emulsion characteristics after storage.