Abstract
Ethyl carbamate (EC), a potential carcinogen, can be formed during the fermentation and storage of alcoholic beverages. In this work, quantitative detection of EC in alcoholic beverages by using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is reported. Flower-shaped silver nanostructure substrates and silver nanocube substrates were prepared and employed as SERS platform. Flower-like silver substrates had better Raman enhancement effect on EC and were selected for further EC detection. In EC SERS spectra based on flower-shaped silver substrates, the strongest and reproducible characteristic band at 857 cm−1 was chosen for establishing a linear regression model in the concentrations ranging from 10−5 to 10−9 M, which effectively extended the application scope of the quantitative model for determination EC. Furthermore, a real alcoholic beverage was tested to verify the feasibility and reliability of the method.
Highlights
Ethyl carbamate (EC, urethane), a by-product of fermentation and storage, is widely contained in most fermented food and alcoholic beverages [1]
In EC SERS spectra based on flower-shaped silver substrates, the strongest and reproducible characteristic band at 857 cm21 was chosen for establishing a linear regression model in the concentrations ranging from 1025 to 1029 M, which effectively extended the application scope of the quantitative model for determination EC
The researches based on animal experiments have proved that EC can lead to the incidence of cancer in lung, blood vessels and liver, which means that EC is a recognized multi-site carcinogenic compound [4,5]
Summary
Ethyl carbamate (EC, urethane), a by-product of fermentation and storage, is widely contained in most fermented food and alcoholic beverages [1]. The carcinogenic and mutagenic effect of EC to animals was detected in the 1940s [2]. In March 2007, EC was classified as a group 2A carcinogen ( probably carcinogenic to humans) by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer [3]. The researches based on animal experiments have proved that EC can lead to the incidence of cancer in lung, blood vessels and liver, which means that EC is a recognized multi-site carcinogenic compound [4,5]. Have regulated legal limit levels for EC in alcoholic beverages ranging from 15 to 1000 mg l21 [4,6,7,8].
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