Automatic Flow-Batch System for Cold Vapor Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy Determination of Mercury in Honey from Argentina Using Online Sample Treatment

Abstract

An automatic flow-batch system that includes two borosilicate glass chambers to perform sample digestion and cold vapor atomic absorption spectroscopy determination of mercury in honey samples was designed. The sample digestion was performed by using a low-cost halogen lamp to obtain the optimum temperature. Optimization of the digestion procedure was done using a Box-Behnken experimental design. A linear response was observed from 2.30 to 11.20 μg Hg L(-1). The relative standard deviation was 3.20% (n = 11, 6.81 μg Hg L(-1)), the sample throughput was 4 sample h(-1), and the detection limit was 0.68 μg Hg L(-1). The obtained results with the flow-batch method are in good agreement with those obtained with the reference method. The flow-batch system is simple, allows the use of both chambers simultaneously, is seen as a promising methodology for achieving green chemistry goals, and is a good proposal to improving the quality control of honey.

Characterization of Argentine honeys on the basis of their mineral content and some typical quality parameters

“…Argentina is one of the major producers of bee honey and is the leading global exporter of high quality honey. About 50% come from the Province of Buenos Aires [2,3]. For instance, the United States imports 19% of their foreign honey from Argentina, spending about 54 million dollars in 2010.…”

Cold Vapor Atomic Absorption and Microwave Digestion for the Determination of Mercury in Honey, Pollen, Propolis and Bees of Greek Origin

“…These data are in agreement with the concentrations of Hg reported in literature from a number of countries which were in the low ng per g levels. In particular the concentrations reported from recent studies ranged between < 0.001 up to 0.034 μg g -1 (Bilandžić et al, 2014;Pisani et al, 2008;Vieira et al, 2014, Meli et al, 2015Ru et al, 2013;Domínguez et al, 2012;Santos Depoi et al, 2010).There is only one reference reporting increased mercury levels in honey from industrially contaminated areas ranging between 0.050 -0.212 μg g -1 (Toporcák et al, 1992).…”

“…Mercury has been determined in honey samples from several countries (Bilandžić et al, 2014;Pisani et al, 2008;Vieira et al, 2014;Meli et al, 2015;Ru et al, 2013;Domínguez et al, 2012;Santos Depoi et al, 2010;Toporcák et al, 1992), whereas limited literature data are available regarding the determination of mercury in propolis (Bonvehí and Bermejo, 2013;Cvek et al, 2008;Matin et al, 2016), pollen (Roman, 2009;Morgano et al, 2010) and honey bees (Perugini et al, 2011;Matin et al, 2016;Toporcák et al, 1992). For the sample preparation of these matrices the most often applied technique is microwave assisted digestion (Pisani et al, 2008;Ru et al, 2013;Roman, 2009;Morgano et al, 2010).…”

“…The elemental Hg is transferred with the aid of carrier gas to a long-pass absorption tube and the determination is completed by measuring the absorbance at 253.7 nm (Skoog et al, 1998). Cold vapor atomic absorption spectroscopy has rarely been applied for the determination of mercury in honey (Vieira et al, 2014;Domínguez et al, 2012), while to the best of our knowledge this technique has not been applied in samples of pollen, bees and propolis.…”

An Analytical Method for the Biomonitoring of Mercury in Bees and Beehive Products by Cold Vapor Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry

“…Mercury has been studied in honey samples by several authors [ 24 , 25 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 ], whereas limited literature data are available regarding the Hg determination in beeswax [ 42 ], pollen [ 24 , 25 , 39 , 41 , 43 , 44 ], propolis [ 24 , 45 , 46 , 47 ], and bees [ 24 , 25 , 31 , 39 , 47 , 48 , 49 ]. Microwave-assisted digestion is the most commonly used technique for preparing bee samples and hive products [ 32 , 35 , 42 , 43 , 44 ].…”