Determination of Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Seafood by Liquid Chromatography with Fluorescence Detection

Abstract

Modification of a previously published method for determination of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) produces very clean seafood extracts in less than half the time. After alkaline digestion of the seafood, PAHs were partitioned into 1,1,2- trichlorotrifluoroethane. The resulting extract was cleaned up by solid-phase extraction on alumina, silica, and C18 adsorbents and then analyzed by gradient reversed-phase liquid chromatography with programmable fluorescence detection. Average recoveries of 12 PAHs [acenaphthene, anthracene, fluoranthene, pyrene, benz(a)anthracene, chrysene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, benzo(k)- fluoranthene, benzo(a)pyrene, dibenz(a,h)anthracene, benzo(ghi)perylene, and indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene] from 5 different matrixes (mussels, oysters, clams, crabmeat, and salmon) spiked at low partsper- billion levels ranged from 76 to 94%. Estimated limits of quantitation ranged from 0.01 to 0.6 ppb PAHs in extracts that were free of matrix interferences. Results of analyses of a mussels standard reference material obtained from the National Institute of Standards and Technology were in good agreement with the certified values.