Reduction of pesticide residues in Chrysanthemum morifolium by nonthermal plasma-activated water and impact on its quality

This study investigated the efficiency of plasma-activated water (PAW) on the reduction of pesticides, namely, metribuzin and metobromuron, and the effect of PAW treatment on the quality of fresh chrysanthemums. The reduction efficiencies reached 74.3% for metribuzin and 38.2% for metobromuron after 240 s of PAW treatment. Compared with reverse osmosis (RO) water, PAW achieved significantly higher pesticide reductions because of its higher acidity, enhanced oxidizing ability, and increased formation of reactive species. Moreover, when compared with metobromuron, metribuzin was reduced more efficiently irrespective of the RO water or PAW treatments because of its higher water solubility, lower log octanol-water partition coefficient, and more oxidizable chemical structure. Additionally, the PAW treatment did not cause adverse changes to the chrysanthemums’ color, total flavonoid content, radical scavenging, or metal chelating activities, but it did cause a slight decrease in the chrysanthemums’ aroma compounds and total reducing power. This study successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of PAW for reducing pesticides in herbal flowers like chrysanthemums and reveals PAW’s promising potential to treat foods with non-smooth surfaces. • PAW’s efficiency for reducing pesticides in non-smooth surface foods is introduced. • PAW significantly reduced metribuzin and metobromuron levels in chrysanthemums. • Acidity and enhanced oxidizing ability of PAW contributed to pesticide reduction. • Degradation is proposed as the mechanism of pesticide removal by PAW. • PAW treatment didn't result in adverse changes in chrysanthemum quality.