Determination of essential and potentially toxic elements and their estimation of bioaccessibility in honeys

Abstract

In this work, the evaluation of the mineral profile and estimation of the bioaccessibility of essential and potentially toxic elements in honey samples was proposed. The experimental design and multivariate data analysis were applied as tool chemometrics. The acidic honey decomposition procedure using a cold finger digester block was proposed for analysis by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP OES). The analytical method presented good precision (<10%). The accuracy was confirmed through the analysis of a certified reference material (CRM) of tomato leaves (AGRO C1003a) and oyster tissue (NIST 1566b). The concentration ranges (in mg kg−1) of the analytes quantified in honey samples were As (<LoQ, 3.25), B (<LoQ, 6.72), Ba (<LoQ, 0.25), Ca (28.4–216), Cd (<LoQ, 0.29), Cu (<LoQ, 0.29), Fe (<LoQ, 47.0), K (27.2–1210), Mg (2.82–96.0), Mn (0.17–4.62), Na (16.4–260), P (<LoQ, 128), Se (<LoQ, 0.45), Sr (<LoQ, 1.08), and Zn (<LoQ, 2.94). Higher concentrations of Cu and Zn were observed in dark and amber honeys. From the multivariate analysis of the data, it was verified that the samples of urban predominance presented higher mineral content than the samples of honey of predominance rural. The bioaccessibility estimation was performed using the in vitro extraction method using the simple bioaccessibility extraction test (SBET). The bands of the bioaccessible contents (in %) for the analytes were Ca (<LoQ, 21.4), Fe (<LoQ, 21.8), K (9.4–20.0), Mg (15.0–25.0), and Na (<LoQ, 20.2). These results provide relevant information about the mineral composition of honey based on the visual coloration, geographical origin and bioaccessible content of the analytes in the gastric phase, contributing to the control of honey quality.