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Determination of mineral oil hydrocarbon contamination in Citrus essential oils by using on-line liquid-gas chromatography: critical aspects

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Abstract

The present manuscript reports and discusses critical issues related to the determination of mineral oil hydrocarbon contamination in Citrus essential oils (EOs); an on-line liquid-gas chromatography system equipped with a Y-interface was used (with no additional off-line step for pre-concentration). In total, eighteen samples were analyzed, specifically eleven cold-pressed (CP) and seven distilled EOs. With regard to the CP EOs, various degrees of mineral oil saturated hydrocarbon (MOSH) contamination were detected, ranging between 10.7 and 338.4 mg kg−1 (only one sample was MOSH-free); different MOSH sub-fractions were determined, with the  > C25- ≤ C35 sub-fraction always present, with an average concentration of 74.5 mg kg−1. Based on the EO composition, different sample amounts were injected to avoid the overloading of the LC column and consequently the GC one, thus leading to different limits of quantification (LoQ), which were either 2 mg kg−1 (for bergamot EO) or 5 mg kg−1 (for all the other investigated samples). For all samples, the mineral oil aromatic hydrocarbon level was always lower than the LoQ.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Shimadzu Corporation and Merck Life Science for their continuous support. “This article is based upon work from the Sample Preparation Task Force and Network, supported by the Division of Analytical Chemistry of the European Chemical Society.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, Messina, Italy

    Alessia Arena, Ivana Bonaccorsi, Peter Q. Tranchida & Luigi Mondello

  2. Department of Mathematical and Computer Science, Physical Sciences and Earth Sciences, University of Messina, Messina, Italy

    Mariosimone Zoccali

  3. Chromaleont s.r.l., c/o Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, Messina, Italy

    Monica Mondello & Luigi Mondello

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  1. Alessia Arena
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  2. Mariosimone Zoccali
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Correspondence to Mariosimone Zoccali.

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Published in the topical collection Food Safety Analysis 2.0 with guest editor Steven J. Lehotay.

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Arena, A., Zoccali, M., Bonaccorsi, I. et al. Determination of mineral oil hydrocarbon contamination in Citrus essential oils by using on-line liquid-gas chromatography: critical aspects. Anal Bioanal Chem 416, 801–808 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-023-04873-7

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