Applications of sample preparation techniques in the analysis of pesticides and PCBs in food

Pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are found in various parts of the environment in quite small concentrations, but they accumulate and thus become a threat to human health and life. A review is focused on the application of some popular techniques for sample preparation in analysis of these compounds in food. Even with the emergence of advanced techniques of final analysis, complex matrices, such as food, require extensive sample extraction and purification. Traditional sample preparation techniques are time consuming and require large amount of solvents, which are expensive, generate considerable waste, contaminate the sample and can enrich it for analytes. There have been many sample preparation techniques proposed to meet the requirements connected with the multiplicity of food. Optimal sample preparation can reduce analysis time, sources of error, enhance sensitivity and enable unequivocal identification and quantification. Sample extraction and purification techniques are discussed and their most recent applications in food analysis are provided. This review pointed out that sample preparation is the critical step.     

Application of solid phase extraction techniques to analyse volatile compounds in wines and other enological products

Aroma compounds are most closely associated with the volatile fraction of foods. Common analytical separation procedures employed to analyse volatile compounds need, even today, that prior to GC analysis of an aroma or a fragrance, these compounds be concentrated or/and isolated from the non-volatile matrix. This step constitutes a problem that has still not been satisfactorily resolved and for this, several sample preparation methods can be found into the bibliography. This review gives a brief overview of solid phase extraction techniques to analyse volatiles. Procedures such as solid phase extraction (SPE), solid phase microextraction (SPME), stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE), and the recent solid phase dynamic extraction (SPDE) will be discussed and critically evaluated. Contemporary applications of these techniques to the study of volatile compounds in wine and other enological products will be presented.     

搅拌棒萃取-气相色谱-质谱联用法分析‘媚丽’桃红葡萄酒中的香气成分

采用搅拌棒萃取法-气相色谱-质谱联用技术,对‘媚丽’桃红葡萄酒中的香气成分进行定量检测。结果表 明：‘媚丽’桃红葡萄酒中共检测到55 种香气成分,包括26 种酯类物质、4 种酸类物质、9 种醇类物质、6 种萜烯 类物质、3 种C13-降异戊二烯等。通过计算香气活性值发现,其中12 种香气成分对‘媚丽’桃红葡萄酒的香气有重 要贡献。这些物质是：乙酸乙酯、丁酸乙酯、己酸乙酯、辛酸乙酯、乙酸异戊酯、异丁酸乙酯、异戊酸乙酯、异戊 醇、2-苯乙醇、里哪醇、β-大马士酮和β-紫罗兰酮。感官分析结果表明：‘媚丽’桃红葡萄酒具有玫瑰香、苹果、 草莓、菠萝等香气。     

采用顶空固相微萃取和搅拌棒吸附萃取技术分析古井贡酒中香气成分

采用顶空固相微萃取(headspace solid-phase microextraction,HS-SPME)和搅拌棒吸附萃取(stir bar sorptive extraction,SBSE)技术,结合气相色谱-质谱联用仪对古井贡酒酒样香气成分进行提取分析。通过优化样品酒精度、萃取温度、萃取时间等参数确定了最优萃取条件,两种方法的整体精密度和重复性均较好。在相同条件下,对比两种萃取方法,SBSE的灵敏度和回收率均高于HS-SPME。通过标准品、保留指数、NIST 14谱库比对,共定性出190种化合物,其中用标准品准确定性143种。在白酒中首次发现4种酯类化合物:3-甲基丁酸己酯、丁酸辛酯、癸酸丙酯、癸酸异丁酯。     

Oxidative and photochemical processes for the removal of galaxolide and tonalide from wastewater

Synthetic musks have been reported in wastewaters at concentrations as high as tens of micrograms per litre. The two most significant polycyclic musk fragrance compounds are 1,3,4,6,7,8-hexahydro-4,6,6,7,8,8-hexamethylcyclopenta(g)-2-benzopyran (HHCB, trade name galaxolide^®) and 7-acetyl-1,1,3,4,4,6-hexamethyltetrahydronaphthalene (AHTN, trade name tonalide^®). We report the result of several irradiation and advanced oxidation processes carried out on samples of the effluent of a wastewater treatment plant located in Alcalá de Henares, Madrid. Wastewater samples were pre-ozonated and spiked with 500 ng/L of tonalide or galaxolide in order to obtain final concentrations in the same order as the raw effluent. The treatments assayed were ozonation with and without the addition of hydrogen peroxide (O₃, O₃/H₂O₂), ultraviolet (254 nm low pressure mercury lamp) and xenon-arc visible light irradiation alone and in combination with ozone (UV, O₃/UV, Xe, O₃/Xe) and visible light photocatalytic oxidation using a Ce-doped titanium dioxide photocatalyst performed under continuous oxygen or ozone gas bubbling (O₂/Xe/Ce-TiO₂, O₃/Xe/Ce-TiO₂). In all cases, samples taken at different contact times up to 15 min were analyzed. An analytical method based on stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE), followed by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (SBSE-GC × GC-TOF-MS), was used for the automatic searching and evaluation of the synthetic musks and other nonpolar or semipolar contaminants in the wastewater samples. In all cases tonalide was more easily removed than galaxolide. The best results for the latter (more than 75% removal after 5 min on stream) were obtained from ozonation (O₃) and visible light photocatalytic ozonation (O₃/Xe/Ce-TiO₂). A significant removal of both pollutants (∼60% after 15 min) was also obtained during visible light photocatalysis (O₂/Xe/Ce-TiO₂). UV radiation was able to deplete tonalide (+90%) after 15 min but only reduced the concentration of galaxolide to about half of its initial concentration. The toxicity of treated samples decreased for O₃/UV and O₃/Ce-TiO₂, but increased during irradiation processes UV, Xe and Xe/Ce-TiO₂. Ozone treatments tend to decrease toxicity up to a certain dosage, from which point the presence of toxic transformation products has adverse effects on aquatic microorganisms.     

Effect of eugenol and guaiacol application on tomato aroma composition determined by headspace stir bar sorptive extraction

BACKGROUND: The present work was carried out because there is only a small amount of literature on how the volatile composition of tomatoes can be modified by the effect of exogenous substances in contact with tomato plants. This work studies how eugenol and guaiacol, either by foliar application and/or in the surrounding atmosphere, can affect the volatile composition of this fruit. An important work of this study was also conduced to validate the analytical method [headspace stir bar sorptive extraction–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (HS‐SBSE‐GC‐MS)] to determine the composition of the volatiles in tomato. RESULTS: Analytical method validation parameters such as linearity, limit of detection, limit of quantification, and recovery proved that this method is suitable for the analysis of tomato volatiles. Their eugenol and guaiacol content changed, with an increase of 200 and 35 times, respectively, when foliar treatment was used, and an increase of 10, in both cases, when plants were in contact with the contaminated atmosphere. As consequence of the treatments other volatile compounds changed considerably. CONCLUSION: For first time, a HS‐SBSE‐GC‐MS method was successfully validated for the study of volatiles in tomatos. Results suggests that exogenous compounds in contact with the plants, such as eugenol and guaiacol, can be absorbed changing the global volatile composition of fruits, which could produce a negative or positive effect in their aroma. © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry     

New FT-IR method to control the evolution of the volatile constituents of vinegar during the acetic fermentation process

FT-IR calibrations have been made to estimate the aromatic compounds present in vinegars during the acetic fermentation process. A change in the concentration of the major species takes place in this process; ethanol drops from values of around 12% to <1%, while acetic acid increases from values of <0.02% to >10%. To perform these FT-IR calibrations specific zones of the IR spectrum have been employed, which have permitted the calibrations to be validated, with prediction error values below 10% for ethyl esters and higher alcohols, and with errors below 20% for fatty acids. For the case of derivatives of acetic acid and furfurals, the prediction errors in the validation of the method were between 20% and 30%.     

气相色谱-质谱结合吸附萃取法测定陈酿黄酒挥发性香气物质

建立吸附法进行香气提取、气相色谱-质谱法测定不同酒龄黄酒中挥发性香气物质的方法。对比分析固相微萃取和搅拌棒吸附萃取对黄酒香气提取的效果,获得优化的香气提取方法。结果表明：采用搅拌棒吸附萃取-气相色谱-质谱法测定黄酒挥发性香气物质的平均相对标准偏差为11.47%,回收率为88.6%～92.3%,说明所建方法稳定;采用搅拌棒吸附萃取-气相色谱-质谱法共测得60种挥发性香气物质,其中15种醇类物质、25种酯类、6种醛类和5种酸类物质;随酒龄增加,乙醇含量逐渐减少,而11种酯类、1种醇类、1种酮类和1种醛类含量逐渐增加,随陈酿时间增加,部分醇、醛类物质被催化氧化成有机酸,酸的增加促进了酯化反应。搅拌棒吸附萃取-气相色谱-质谱法具有前处理简单快捷、重复性好等优点,可为黄酒香气分析提供准确可靠的数据。     

Determination of synthetic phenolic antioxidants in soft drinks by stir-bar sorptive extraction coupled to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

The synthetic phenolic antioxidants butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) and tert-butyl hydroquinone (TBHQ) were pre-concentrated by stir-bar sorptive extraction and thermally desorbed (SBSE-TD) before analysis by GC-MS. Several parameters affecting the derivatisation step and both SBSE extraction and thermal desorption were carefully optimised. When the analyses of BHA and TBHQ in their acetylated, silylated and underivatised forms were compared, the best results were obtained when the in-situ derivatisation procedure with acetic anhydride was employed. Quantification was carried out using carvacrol as the internal standard, providing quantification limits of between 0.11 and 0.15 ng ml^?1, depending on the compound. Recovery assays for samples spiked at two concentration levels, 1 and 5 ng ml^?1, provided recoveries in the 81–117% range. The proposed method was applied in the analysis canned soft drinks and the analytes were found in five of the 10 samples analysed.