Development of dipstick‐based immuno‐chemiluminescence techniques for the rapid detection of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane

The occurrence of organochlorine pesticides in the environment has been a major concern, due to their high persistence and the possible impacts of their exposure to humans. Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) is most hazardous and one of the most widely used organochlorine insecticides. DDT and its main metabolites are highly stable to physical, chemical and biological degradation and are therefore still being detected in many parts of the world. The present study describes dipstick‐based immuno‐chemiluminescence method for the detection of DDT with high sensitivity. Anti‐DDT antibodies raised in chicken (IgY) were used as the biological sensing elements by immobilizing onto nitrocellulose membrane strips in a chemiluminescence (CL)‐based dipstick technique. The photons generated during the biochemical interaction were directly proportional to the DDT concentration. A mean recovery of 81.2–95.6% was obtained for DDT‐spiked fruit juice samples with 2.8–4.6% relative standard deviation (RSD). Using the proposed dipstick‐based immuno‐CL method, DDT was detected with linearity in the range 0.05–1 ng/mL, having a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.05 ng/mL. This method can be used for the rapid, reliable detection of DDT pesticide. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.