Title:Simultaneous Determination of Benzo(a)pyrene, Benzo(a)anthracene, Benzo(
b)fluoranthene, and Chrysene in Tocotrienol Concentrates Using Dual
Solid-phase Extraction and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry
Volume: 18
Issue: 8
Author(s): Jia Yi Hor, Norfarizah Hanim Hassan, Musfirah Zulkarnain, Razam Abd Latip, Mohammad Saiful Nidzam and Yong Foo Wong*
Affiliation:
- Centre for Research on Multidimensional Separation Science, School of Chemical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia,
11800 Penang, Malaysia
Keywords:
Polyaromatic hydrocarbon, GC-MS, tocotrienol rich fraction, LLE, dSPE, tocotrienol homologues.
Abstract:
Background: Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a class of toxic compounds commonly
found in edible vegetable oils as a result of contamination through food processing. Among the wide variety
of PAHs existing in edible oils, benzo(a)pyrene (BAP), benzo(a)anthracene (BAA), benzo(
b)fluoranthene (BBF), and chrysene (CHR) are commonly monitored due to their toxicity, carcinogenic
and teratogenic properties.
Materials and Methods: In this context, we described a combination of liquid-liquid extraction and dual
cartridge solid-phase extraction (dSPE) system for the extraction of BAP, BAA, BBF, and CHR in palm
oil derived tocotrienol rich fraction (T3RF), followed by their analysis using GC-MS operating in selected
ion monitoring mode (SIM).
Results: The separation was effected using a DB-5HT column (30 m × 0.25 mm × 0.25 μm) that can operate
at a high temperature limit of 400 °C, which enables the separation of the PAHs in < 28 min. The
calibration curves were correlated within the range of 1.5-25 μg/ L, with detection limits (S/N: 3.3) of
0.48-1.35 μg/L, and relative standard deviations of ≤ 0.07% and ≤ 6.85% were achieved for intra-day
retention times and peak areas.
Conclusion: The proposed sample preparation and GC-SIM workflow greatly reduces interference
caused by tocotrienol homologues and enables the quantitative determination of BAP, BAA, BBF, and
CHR in T3RF and palm fatty acid distillates.
