Evaluation of lead, cadmium and copper concentrations in bee honey and edible molasses

Abstract

Problem statement: Content of Cadmium, lead and copper in 26 bee honey samples from different places of Assiut governorate (south of Egypt) and three different botanical origins (Clover, Multi-flower and Citrus) in addition to four edible molasses samples from Egypt market were evaluated by Differential Pulse Anodic Stripping Voltammetry (DPASV) in Briton-Robinson buffer solution at pH ~ 2.1, as well as atomic absorption spectrometry after wet digestion. Approach: The optimal deposition potentials and times for the detection of these metal ions in all sample solutions have been studied. Results: The concentration of each metal ion was determined by the standard addition method. The statistical parameters i.e., slope, standard deviation, correlation coefficient and confidence have been calculated. Conclusion/Recommendations: The results obtained using stripping voltammetry indicate that the average concentration of Cu ions ranged from 0.085-0.987 μg g-1. In addition, the average concentrations of Cd and Pb ions ranged 0.001-0.077 and 0.006-1.640 μg g-1; respectively. On the other hand, the average concentrations obtained using atomic absorption spectrometry of the same element mentioned above ranged from 0.077-0.991 μg g-1 for Cu; 0.001-0.087 μg g-1 for Cd and 0.007-1.650 μg g-1 for Pb. © 2010 Science Publications.