Determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in cachaca by HPLC with fluorescence detection

摘要

Cachaca is a distilled alcoholic beverage obtained from sugar cane fermentation. In this study, 25 brands of cachaca commercially available in Brazil were analysed for the presence of 5 PAHs (benz[a]anthracene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, benzo[k]fluoranthene, benzo[a]-pyrene and dibenz[a,h]anthracene). The methodology involved liquid-liquid extraction with cyclohexane and dimethyilformamide-water (9:1, v/v), clean up on silica gel column and determination by high performance liquid chromatography using fluorescence detection. PAHs peak identity was confirmed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Variable levels of summed PAHs were detected in the analysed samples, ranging from not detected to 1.94 μg/L. The results confirm the presence of PAHs in cachaca and suggest that contaminated sugar cane may be the source of PAHs in sugar cane spirits.