Trace element levels in honeys from different regions of Turkey

Abstract

A survey of 25 honey samples from different botanical origin, collected all over the Turkey was conducted to assess their trace element contents. The aim of this study was to determine the levels of cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), chromium (Cr), zinc (Zn), aluminium (Al) and selenium (Se) in honey samples from different regions of Turkey. Trace element contents were determined by a flame and graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry technique after dry-ashing, microwave digestion and wet-digestion. The accuracy of the method was corrected by the standard reference material, NIST-SRM 1515 Apple leaves. The contents of trace elements in honey samples were in the range of 0.23–2.41 μg g −1, 0.32–4.56 μg g −1, 1.1–12.7 μg g −1, 1.8–10.2 μg g −1, 8.4–105.8 μg kg −1, 2.6–29.9 μg kg −1, 2.4–37.9 μg kg −1, 0.9–17.9 μg kg −1, 83–325 μg kg −1 and 38–113 μg kg −1 for Cu, Mn, Zn, Fe, Pb, Ni, Cr, Cd, Al and Se, respectively. Iron was the most abundant element while cadmium was the lowest element in the Turkish honeys surveyed. The results showed that trace element concentrations in the honeys from different regions were generally correlated with the degree of trace element contamination of the environment.