Spectrophotometric Determination of Trace Elements in various Honey Samples, Collected from different Environments

Afzal Shah^{1, 2,} , Farzana Sikandar¹, Imdad Ullah^{2, 3}, Afzal Shah³, Salah Ud-Din Khan⁴, Usman Ali Rana^{2, 4} and Thomas McCoy²

¹Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology, Bannu 28100, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

²School of Chemistry, Monash University, Clayton, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia

³Department of Chemistry, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan

⁴Deanship of scientific research, College of Engineering, PO Box 800, King Saud University, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia

Cite this paper:
Afzal Shah, Farzana Sikandar, Imdad Ullah, Afzal Shah, Salah Ud-Din Khan, Usman Ali Rana and Thomas McCoy. Spectrophotometric Determination of Trace Elements in various Honey Samples, Collected from different Environments. Journal of Food and Nutrition Research. 2014; 2(9):532-538. doi: 10.12691/jfnr-2-9-1

Abstract

Honey is an important food ingredient due to its nutritive and medicinal values. In this project, varieties of honey samples were collected from different environmental sites in District Bannu. Several spectroscopic techniques were used to determine the composition of a series of trace elements within these samples. Cu, Zn, Al, Fe and Mg composition was determined using flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (FAAS), meanwhile Pb, Ni, Cd and Cr composition was determined by electro-thermal atomic absorption spectroscopy (ETAAS) and graphite atomic absorption spectroscopy (GAAS). Lastly, As, Hg, and Se composition was determined by Hydride generation atomic absorption spectroscopy (HGAAS). The trace elements Al, Zn, Mg, Fe, Cu, Cr, Pb, Cd and Ni were found in considerable abundances. However the amounts of As, Hg and Se were below the detection limits of the instrument ( ≥ 0.1 ppm, ≥ 0.1 ppm and ≥ 0.2 ppm for each element respectively).

Keywords:
trace elements honey food nutrition environment

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