Physiological effect of thiamethoxam on Zea mays and its electrochemical detection using silver electrode.

The aim of this work is the detection and quantification of bioaccumulated thiamethoxam in Zea mays at a silver electrode using square-wave voltammetry. The evaluation of thiamethoxam (THM) bioaccumulation and plant development was followed for 10 days from germination to seedling growth. In this context, germination rate, accumulation rate, root length, and plant length were used as indicators. All experiments were carried out using several concentrations of THM (5.0×10 , 1.0×10 , 5.0×10 , 3.4×10 and 5.0×10 mol L ).The results confirm that Zea mays was sensitive to this insecticide and that the germination and growth inhibition were dose-dependent. The efficiency and utility of the proposed method were discussed. The current intensity increases linearly with the increase of the THM bioaccumulated in Zea mays. The recovery of the extraction of THM is encouraging after 10 days of treatment. The detection and quantification limits were found to be 9.58×10 mol L (3*SD/B) and 3.13×10 mol L (10*SD/B). The precision was 2.67 % for eight repetitions in a solution of 3.5×10 mol L THM. Also, the histological tests were performed to confirm the effect of THM on the plant and showed that exposure to THM induced a net histological modification in the primary root tissue of Zea mays.The use of THM can affect the quality of plant crop yield, and its accumulation in edible plants could pose a potential risk for human and animal health if the insecticide intake exceeded the recommended tolerable limits. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.