Abstract:

A novel high performance liquid chromatography method has been developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of furfural and hydroxymethylfurfural in 18 honey samples. An Agilent Poroshell 120 EC-C18 150x3 mm 2.7μm particle sized column and isocratic elution with a 0.5 mL/min flow rate were used. The mobile phase was 10mM pH 2.5 phosphate buffer and acetonitrile and monitoring of analytes was carried on using a DAD detector at 284 nm wavelength. The method was validated according to USP guideline in terms of accuracy, precision, specificity, linearity and range robustness and ruggedness. According to the obtained results, the concentration levels of hydroxymethylfurfural were between 19.56-209.42 mg/kg in honey samples. Observed concentration values of HMF for 5 honey samples were higher than requirements and the highest level of hydroxymethylfurfural was observed in a thyme honey sample (209.42 mg/kg). The concentration values of furfural found in honey samples were in the range of 0.34-2.23 mg/kg. The highest level of furfura was determined in the thyme honey sample (2.23 mg/kg) also containing the highest concentration of hydroxymethylfurfural. In this study, the margins of exposure to furfural were also calculated for investigated honey samples. The margins of exposure for all analyzed samples were above the value of 100, indicating the safety of samples regarding to furfural exposure. The excessive hydroxymethylfurfural contents in some samples is a concerning point for public health and the national authority needs to increase its supervision on the honey.

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