Oxymatrine – since 1st July 2021 classified as pesticide in the EU

Since the beginning of 2019, the scope of the comprehensive pesticide screening by GC-MS/MS, LC-MS/MS (> 600 parameters) at QSI (outsourced within Tentamus Group to bilacon GmbH, lab codes 88500, 88550) also includes matrine and oxymatrine.
Both substances are alkaloids that occur naturally in plants of the Sophora family. Sophora is a genus of about 45 species of small trees and shrubs of the pea family Fabaceae.
Matrine and oxymatrine are also used as pharmaceutical agents and pesticides, among others, due to their insecticidal activity. Use as a pesticide is not permitted in the EU, but both active ingredients are used as insecticides, particularly in Asia.

For this reason, the EU has classified Matrine as a pesticide, whereby the application of the general value of 0.01 mg/kg according to Article 18, paragraph 1 letter b of Regulation EC 396/2005 is applied.

Since the beginning of July, this general value of 0.01 mg/kg now also applies to oxymatrine, which was presumably triggered by a rapid alert.

QSI will therefore list both substances in the test report as usual if they are detected in the sample.
In addition, from now on, matrine and oxymatrine will be assessed with the general value of 0.01 mg/kg. This value applies to both conventional and organic goods.

For the matrix honey, in several thousand pesticide analyses since the beginning of 2019, matrine and oxymatrine were detected in only 40 samples, and in 50% of the cases the levels found were above 0.01 mg/kg. The origin of the samples of the positive findings was China in all cases.

If you have any questions or special requirements regarding the scope
we will be happy to advise you.

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