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Sensitive method for the determination of nitrated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the human diet

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Abstract

The presence of nitrated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (nitro-PAHs) as contaminants in foods is nowadays a legitimate cause of concern, as they are reported to be strong direct-acting mutagens and carcinogens that may pose a risk to human health. Nevertheless, their concentrations in foods are in the ultra-trace region. In this study, we present a very sensitive analytical method for the determination of this compound class in complex food matrices. Special emphasis was put on sample extraction and clean up. Recoveries of 75% could be obtained for 1- and 2-nitronaphthalene; for all other compounds investigated the recoveries were ≥94%. The determination of the compounds was performed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. The results show that the use of negative chemical ionization (NCI) increases the sensitivity by one order of magnitude in comparison to electron impact ionization (EI) (limits of detection 0.07–0.25 µg kg−1 for EI and 0.01–0.02 µg kg−1 for NCI). The influence of the sample matrix on the sensitivity of the method is demonstrated with extracts of a sample from a duplicate diet study. Due to the lack of a certified reference material the suitability of the method is demonstrated with pumpkin seed oil that was spiked with nitro-PAHs at two different concentration levels.

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported financially by the Austrian Ministry of Education, Research and Culture as well as by the European Commission (INCO-Copernicus project ERBIC 15 CT98 0339). The authors would like to thank the research group from the Institute of Chemical Technology, Department of Food Chemistry and Analysis, Prague, Czech Republic (Prof. Jana Hajslova, Bohuslav Dusek, Vladimir Kocourek) for the fruitful discussions within the project as well as Prof. Martin Mittelbach, Institute for Organic and Bioorganic Chemistry, Graz University, Austria for providing the possibility to use GC-MS-NCI.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Food Chemistry and Technology, Graz University of Technology, Petersgasse 12/II, 8010 , Graz, Austria

    Barbara Siegmund, Richard Weiss & Werner Pfannhauser

Authors
  1. Barbara Siegmund
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  2. Richard Weiss
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  3. Werner Pfannhauser
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Correspondence to Barbara Siegmund.

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Siegmund, B., Weiss, R. & Pfannhauser, W. Sensitive method for the determination of nitrated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the human diet. Anal Bioanal Chem 375, 175–181 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-002-1653-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-002-1653-8

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