Effects of ozone microbubble treatment on removal of residual pesticides and quality of persimmon leaves

This study investigated the effects of ozone microbubble (OMCB) treatment on the removal of residual fenitrothion (FT) and benomyl pesticides from red and green persimmon leaves, and also the treatment effect on the leaf colours, physical properties and flavour. The continuous bubbling OMCB treatment was more effective than the non-bubbling OMCB treatments at reducing the FT and benomyl agricultural pesticide residues from both the red and green persimmon leaves. Moreover, the bubbling OMCB treatment had no effect on the colour and pulling strength of the leaves. These results indicate that the treatment by bubbling OMCB is an extremely effective method for removing the residues of and benomyl in persimmon leaves and has relatively little effect on leaf quality characteristics. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.