The potential of low temperature extraction method for analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in refined olive and refined pomace olive oils by HPLC/FLD

A method was developed and validated for determining 15 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in refined olive and refined pomace olive oils using high performance liquid chromatography coupled with a fluorescence detector. The sample preparation involved liquid–liquid extraction with organic solvent and low temperature clean-up. The low temperature allowed most of the lipids in the extract to be removed. Then alumina-N and NH2 solid phase extraction cartridges were used for further clean-up. The results showed that the obtained chromatogram of extract was free of significant interferences. The PAH recoveries ranged from 81% to 114 %. Limit of detection and limit of quantitation for individual PAHs were 0.09-1.97 µgkg-1 and 0.29-5.99 µgkg-1, respectively. The performance of the present method was evaluated for determining PAHs in various types of real refined olive and refined pomace olive oil samples, and suitable results were obtained. The variable levels of PAHs were detected to range from 0.29 to 8.21µgkg-1 in real samples.