Özet:

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are organic compounds primarily formed by incomplete combustion of organic matter, widely distributed in the environment. The major aim of this research is to establish the degree of contamination of several plant origin food products available on the market with PAHs. 15 from the 16 Environmental Protection Agency priority PAHs were assessed: naphthalene, acenaphtene, fluorene, phenanthrene, anthracene, fluoranthene, pyrene, benz(a)anthracene, chrysene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, benzo(k)fluoranthene, benzo(a)pyrene, dibenzo(a,h) anthracene, benzo(g,h,i)perylene and indeno(1,2,3-c,d)pyrene. Samples were collected randomly from commercially available wheat flour, maize flour, wheat semolina, coffee, dried plums, dried apricots, raisins and dates, all of these being obtained from the local supermarkets from Cluj Napoca. High performance liquid chromatographic analysis was achieved using an Agilent 1100 system consisting in a solvent degasser, a quaternary pumping system, an autosampler, a column oven, a diode-array detector and a fluorescence detector. Separations were accomplished using an Envirosep PP column with acetonitrile:water as mobile phase (45:55 v/v). The average total PAHs’ content ranged from 0.94 g/ kg in dried plums to 28.12 g/ kg in coffee, for the other studied products being in the range 1.42 – 5.34 g/ kg; phenantrene, fluoranthene and benz(a)anthracene were the major PAHs, their maximum concentration being recorded in coffee The results obtained revealed a moderate contamination of the studied food products; these can be useful in studies for establishing the human exposure to PAHs.

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