Separation and determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in fruits and vegetables by gas chromatography technique, Baghdad city, Iraq

Abstract

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are polluting compounds in various types of vegetables and fruits. The levels of these compounds depend on the source of the pollution it has been shown that the high percentage of PAHs in water, air and soil has a significant impact on the levels of PAHs in fruits and vegetable. The current study was conducted to detect and determine the levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in samples of basil, mint, radish leaves, spinach, orange, mandarin, yellow apple, red apple, bitter orange, sweet lemon. Fruit and vegetable samples were collected from three different places and analyzed for thirteen polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The analytical method included the use of gas chromatography technique to separate and quantify the PAHs compounds, under optimal separation conditions, and extract samples with the Soxhlet device. The concentrations of PAHs in vegetables ranged from (1.6262-5.3506 ppm) and in fruits (0.4203-2.6294 ppm). We also note the presence of chrysene in the basil sample with a higher concentration than all the compounds (2.2187ppm), while in the fruits, benzo as fluoranthene showed a higher concentration than all the compounds in the fruits with a concentration of (1.4034ppm). Among the mutagenic and carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, benzo(a) anthracene was found in high percentage in Dora region basil with (1.5538ppm), while acenaphthylene was not detected in all vegetable samples, acenaphthene and acenaphthylene were not detected in all fruit samples.