Elemental Analysis with Mercury Speciation in Honey Using LC-ICP-MS

User Benefits

- Simultaneous analysis of essential elements for normal metabolism and harmful toxic elements. - LC-ICP-MS system enables speciation analysis of mercury. - TRM software enables centralized analysis of LC-ICP-MS systems.

Introduction

Honey is the natural sweet substance, produced by Honeybees from the nectar of plants. Honey has a superior nutritional value and contains a variety of minerals that are minor constituents. Elements such as Cu, Sn, and Zn are essential for normal metabolism in human and elements such as Pb, Cd, As and Hg are considered as toxic and harmful to human metabolism. Mercury (Hg) is considered as an element of concern for major public health by the World Health Organization (WHO)1). Methylmercury (CH3Hg) is the most common and toxic organic form of mercury. The source of these toxic elements could be from air pollution, pesticides, industrial waste or natural disaster which goes from ground water to soil and then from plants nectar to Honeybees. The potential for mercury contamination has become serious concern to human and environmental health. The contamination of mercury and its conversion to methylmercury is largely depending on the location in which it arrives. If the location is favorable, then the conversion of inorganic mercury to the significantly more toxic organic form of methylmercury happens. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has laid down limits of 1.0 mg/kg for total mercury and 0.25 mg/kg CH3Hg in food products2). To meet these limits ICP-MS is widely used as an accurate and reliable technique for quantification. In the present study, one honey sample was analyzed using Shimadzu ICPMS-2030 for quantitation of total and inorganic mercury along with quantification of methyl mercury by coupling ICPMS-2030 to HPLC as a speciation technique.

October 15, 2024 GMT