Optimizing the Analysis of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Tea Samples

Abstract

Abstract: The optimization of sample preparation and gas chromatography - mass spectrometry (GC/MS)analysis was carried out to determine 15 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon compounds (PAHs) in tea. The method detection limit (MDL) for individual PAH in tea was in the range of 0.07 - 0.16 µg/kg; the recovery efficiency of the whole analytical procedure was from 53 to 132 % with good repeatability (RSD from 1.1 to 7.3 %). The application of the procedure to the analysis of Vietnamese green tea samplesresulted in the total content of PAHs in the range of 38.1 to 123 µg/kg. Compared with the European Commission's Regulation on the maximum allowed content of benzo(a)pyrene and the PAH4 group in dry herbs, all of the analyzed green tea samples have toxic PAH content at lower level than permitted.

Keywords: PAHs, tea, GC/MS.

References:

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