Application of QuEChERS with GC/MS/MS for monitoring polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs) contaminants in Turkish flora honey produced in urban and rural areas

Abstract

Environmental pollution has been a problem waiting for solutions worldwide in recent years. Pollution with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs), oil, and petroleum derivatives, may have long- and short-term environmental and health effects. Bee products are used as bioindicators to determine environmental pollution. In this work, 16 PAHs compounds were analyzed in honey samples from different Turkey regions by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC/MS/MS). In this work, the modern extraction method (QuEChERS) was selective and sensitive enough to extract 16 PAHs from honey samples. High amounts of naphthalene (22.5 µg kg−1 ), acenaphthylene (16.2 µg kg−1 ), acenaphthene (17.3 µg kg−1 ), fluorene (13.3 µg kg−1 ), phenanthrene (14.5 µg kg−1 ), fluoranthene (11.9 µg kg−1 ), benzo(b)fluoranthene (12.6 µg kg−1 ), benzo(k)fluoranthene (12.7 µg kg−1 ), and benzo(a)pyrene (11.7 µg kg−1 ) were detected. Besides, PAHs levels in the Marmara region were very high. The differences in PAHs content between honey from rural and urban areas could be related to atmospheric conditions such as exhaust gases, dust, and airborne particles or from soils in which the plants grow.