CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Introduction: Bromacil or 5-bromo-3-sec-butyl-6-methyl uracil is a no selective herbicide used for the cultivation of pineapple and control of some citrus. Although it was withdrawn from EU, few years ago, in Costa Rica, continues to be used as one of the main herbicides in pineapple crops. In 2007 the production reached 41,000 hectares (100% increases inthree years).Aims: In this contribution we tried to establish, through animal model, a decontamination technique and quantitative analysis of bromacil in hair, as a marker of chronic exposure to be applied to individuals exposed in growing areas. This is the first report of bromacil in hair as a potential biomarker in the literatureMethods: We administered for three months, orally, in the drinking water of twelve Sprague Dawley rats a bromacil dose of 3.84 mg / kg / day. After decontamination of hair with sodium dodecylsulfate and methanol by 5 min, were segmented (1 cm each) hair sample. Each segment was cut into small pieces (< 1 mm) and 25 mg were sonicated 15 minutes in 1 mL ofmethanol then incubated 12 hs at 37 °C with 10 ng bromacil-d3 used as internal standard. Samples were centrifuged and the methanol was evaporated and re take with water. After a liquid-liquid extraction with ethyl acetate samples the extract was analyzed with Agilent 6130 LC/MS system. Bromacil was identified with the two following ion (m/z): 261.1 and 205.1. The method was validated Results: Hair segments results (ng/mg) are shown in the following table.Conclusions: Table shows the amounts of bromacil in hair with increasing exposure, regardless of variations in water consumption. At 45 days therewas a decrease that could be due to a lower consumption of water due to prolonged exposure to the pesticide. This preliminary research will allowus to point to the human hair exposed to bromacil.