Abstract
A simple and fast sample preparation procedure for the determination of traces of Cd, Co, Ni and Pb in honeys was proposed. It included the preparation of acidified sample solutions of honeys, the retention of elements of interest on resin beds of a strongly acidic gel cation exchanger Dowex 50W×8-400, and their elution with a 3.0 mol L-1 HCl solution prior to measurements by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS). The method provided the precision and the accuracy better than 4.5% and detection limits of 0.005 µg g-1 (Cd), 0.015 µg g-1 (Co, Ni) and 0.073 µg g-1 (Pb). The reliability of results obtained with the developed procedure and FAAS was validated by the recovery test and the comparison with results achieved using the wet digestion and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. The method was applied for the analysis of sixty nine samples of honeys originated from the Lower Silesia region (southeast Poland). It was found that Cd, Co and Pb were under detection limits, while Ni was determined in nine honeys at the level of 0.19-0.93 µg g-1.
Highlights
The contamination of honey with elements is acknowledged to be a result of various anthropogenic factors, primarily the environmental pollution.[1,2,3,4] When bees forage in industrialized and urban areas, they collect the dust and other pollutions and carry them into apiaries
Before the determination of traces of Cd, Co, Ni and Pb by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS) in honeys collected for this study by the developed solid phase extraction (SPE)-based procedure, different means of the preparation of sample solutions were tested
Despite of relatively low detection limits (DLs) assessed for Cd, Co and Pb using the developed analytical method, it was established that concentrations of these elements in analyzed samples of honey were below 0.005 mg g-1 (Cd), 0.015 mg g-1 (Co) and 0.073 mg g-1 (Pb)
Summary
The contamination of honey with elements is acknowledged to be a result of various anthropogenic factors, primarily the environmental pollution.[1,2,3,4] When bees forage in industrialized and urban areas, they collect the dust and other pollutions and carry them into apiaries. Ions of elements of interest were retained from solutions of honey samples dissolved in water and acidified with HNO3 to a certain concentration, i.e., 0.2 mol L-1, on cation-exchange Dowex 50W×8-400 resin beds.
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