Minor and trace-elements in apiary products from a historical mining district (Les Malines, France)

Abstract

The trace-elements (TE) contents of honey, royal-jelly and beeswax from a historical Zn-Pb mining district have been investigated to assess potential contamination. In spite of high levels of heavy metal (As, Cd, Tl, Pb) in wastes left after mining stopped, apiary products appear to be relatively free of TE contamination. For honey, the following average levels (±standard error) were observed: Zn 571±440μgkg(-1), Pb 26±20μgkg(-1), Tl 13±10μgkg(-1), Cd 7±6μgkg(-1) and As 3±4μg.kg(-1). These results bring additional data to the potential impact of brownfields left after mining on apiary products. They also bring new data to assess potential risks linked with honey consumption and discuss legal TE contents in honey and other food products from apiaries.

Determination of Macro and Trace Element Levels in Honey from the Lower Amazonian Region, Brazil

“…However, in this study, the positive correlation between these elements was significant and represented 40% of the determination coefficient. Furthermore, Cd levels were similar to those found in Polish honey from an industrialized region [26] and were higher than those found in French [27] and Brazilian honey [2]. Nevertheless, no honey sample analyzed in this study had Cd concentrations that were higher than the maximum recommended (0.1 µg g -1 ) by international law [28].…”

Industrial-Scale Decontamination Procedure Effects on the Content of Acaricides, Heavy Metals and Antioxidant Capacity of Beeswax

“…The presence of heavy metals and trace and ultra-trace elements in honeybees, honey or pollen is being well-studied [20,21,22] because of their use in the food industry. Furthermore, the analysis of this type of elements in beeswax is infrequent due to the fact that beeswax is not consumed; however, it is important to control the concentration of these elements because beeswax is used in other areas such as biomedicine or in the cosmetic industry.…”

Effectiveness of Different Sample Treatments for the Elemental Characterization of Bees and Beehive Products

“…A volume of 1 or 2 mL of concentrated HNO 3 for each digestion method was selected considering the maximum volume of the digestion vessels and the minimum dilution of the samples, in order to have a final acidity of <5%, as recommended by the ICP-MS manual. The bee samples with mass of 200 mg and a reagent mixture ratio 1:2 of H 2 O 2 and HNO 3 were kept at maximum constant temperature of 95 °C for the water bath and 180 °C for the microwave oven, in accordance with previous studies [ 15 , 35 , 51 ]. Two commonly used digestion procedures with strong reagent mixtures [ 54 , 55 , 56 ], microwave aqua regia + H 2 O 2 and microwave aqua regia + HF, were used for the total digestion of elements in bees and beehive products samples.…”

“…In fact, several living organisms, known as biomonitors, can accumulate toxic elements, allowing the monitoring of pollutants concentrations in the environment for integrated measurements over time [ 11 , 12 , 13 ]. The use of apis mellifera and beehive products for biomonitoring studies has been widely investigated [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ] and reviewed [ 21 , 22 , 23 ]. Honeybees and the associated matrices are often considered as efficient sentinels for environmental biomonitoring [ 7 , 17 ].…”

“…Generally, among all beehive products, only honey [ 14 , 20 , 21 , 23 , 32 , 34 , 51 , 52 , 53 ] or honey and pollen [ 17 , 24 , 35 ] are considered in the optimization approach for elemental determination with ICP techniques. To our knowledge, in the literature, few studies are focused on the elemental content of other beehive products such as propolis [ 19 , 31 , 38 ] or royal jelly and beeswax [ 15 ].…”