Determination of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) inedible oils

Edible oils such as palm, corn and sunflower oils were analyzed for the presence of light and heavy polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) using liquid-liquid extraction, clean-up on a silica gel column, and determination by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) using a fluorescene detector. In this study, 15 PAHs compounds induding Napthalene, Acenapthene, Fluorene, Phenanthrene, Anthracene, Fluoranthene, Pyrene, Benzo[a]anthracene, Chrysene, Benzo[b]fluoranthene, Benzo[k]fluoranthene, Benzo[a]pyrene, Dibenz[a,h]anthracene, Benzo[g,h,i]perylene and Ideno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene were studied. The linearity of the method was between 0.9996 to 1.0000. Limit of detection (LOD) was ranged from 0.01 to 1.17 ng/g, whereas limit of quantification (LOQ) was ranged from 0.02 to 3.51 ng/g. All PAHs were separated and analyzed in 31 minutes. Com oil sample did not show any concentration of Benzo[a]anthracene, Chrysene, Benzo[a]pyrene and Benzo[b]fluoranthene (PAH4), whereas palm oil and sunflower oil samples have exceeded the sum of four PAHs (PAH4) limit (10 ng/g), 100.35 ng/g and 116.76 ng/g respectively. Therefore, more studies need to be conduded to confirm this result due to limitation of the study.