Optimization of the benzo(a)pyrene determination procedure in cachaça

Abstract

The present study evaluated and optimized a routine method to quantify and confirm BaP in Brazilian sugar cane spirit (cachaça). Three extraction procedures were tested, one using SPE for extraction and clean-up, while two others were liquid-liquid partition extraction followed by silica gel chromatography clean-up. BaP was quantified by high performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection and confirmed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. HPLC detection and quantification limits were 0.03 and 0.10 μg L-1, respectively. The recovery results ranged from 82.9 to 97.0% with coefficients of variation (CV) ranging from 0.5 to 4.9% at concentration levels of 0.1, 1.0 and 3.0 μg L-1, which are in accordance with those described by other authors. The three procedures were appropriated to quantify BaP in cachaça, although SPE extraction is the cheapest, fastest and the least solvent-consuming. The levels of BaP contamination on twenty cachaça samples ranged from no detected (LOD < 0.03 μg L-1) to 0.49 μg L-1. ©2009 Sociedade Brasileira de Química.