Determination of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Traditional Chinese Medicine Raw Material, Extracts, and Health Food Products

Abstract

The four polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon markers (PAH4) of benzo[a]anthracene (BaA), chrysene (Chr), benzo[b]fluoranthene (BbF), and benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) are indicators showing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) contamination levels in Chinese medicine raw materials (CMRMs), extracts and health food products; Samples of herbal medicine, herbal extracts, and food supplements were extracted with n-hexane, then cleaned up sequentially on Florisil and EUPAH solid-phase extraction (SPE) columns. A gas chromatography–mass spectrometry method for the determination of four polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon markers in Chinese medicine raw material, extracts, and health food products was established; In spiked-recovery experiments, the average recovery was about 78.6–107.6% with a precision of 2.3–10.5%. The limit of quantification (LOQ) and limit of detection (LOD) of the PAH4 markers in this method were 2.0 μg/kg and 0.7 μg/kg, respectively. When the developed method was utilized to determine PAH4 contents in 12 locally available health food products, 3 samples contained over 10.0 μg/kg BaP, and 5 samples contained over 50.0 μg/kg PAH4. The European Union (EU) limits for BaP and PAH4 are 10 and 50.0 μg/kg, respectively; therefore, more attention must be drawn to the exposure risk of BaP and PAH4 in CMRMs, their extracts, and health food products. According to the risk assessment based on the Margin of Exposure (MOE) method, it is recognized that the products mentioned in this study pose a low risk.

GC-MS/MS Method for Determination of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Herbal Medicines

“…However, HMs are facing stumbling blocks like pesticides, heavy metals and PAHs, which are environmental pollutants due to industrialization and civilization, while their use is increasing [9]. In addition to these external factors, the internal PAHs may be generated during the frying, roasting, steaming and smoking processes because some processed herbal medicinal products require longterm cooking at high temperatures [10]. Thus, the European Commission (EC) considered the maximum allowable residual content of Bap to be less than 10.0 µg/kg and the total 4 PAHs to be less than 50 µg/kg in dried herbs [11].…”

Carbonized loofah sponge-based solid-phase extraction of benzo[a]pyrene from fish followed by liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detection

“…The USE based on n-hexane has the advantages of convenient operation, safety, time-saving, and simple equipment. [14][15][16][17][18] Clean-up methods mainly include solid-phase extraction (SPE), column chromatography, and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). Among them, SPE is one of the most widely used methods due to its simple operation, strong extraction capacity, and high extraction efficiency.…”