Abstract

A rapid, and sensitive analytical method based on the use of Dispersive Liquid-Liquid Microextraction, ionic liquids and High-performance liquid chromatography equipped with a fluorescence detector for determination of six carcinogenic Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in tea infusions samples was developed. The effects of various parameters associated to analytical method and tea infusions preparation were studied. Under the optimized conditions the method exhibited good precision, with relative standard deviation values between 2% and 5%, for the six PAHs. Limits of detection of the method achieved for all the analytes were between 2.0 and 30.8 ng L-1, and the recoveries ranged from 56% to 94%. The proposed method was successfully applied to the analysis of twenty-five tea marketed in Chile. The concentration found for the six carcinogenic PAHs were reported for the first time in this study and the values are found between 0.4 and 9.7 mu g L-1 for black tea, 7.0-16.3 mu g L-1 for green tea and 1.4-8.25 mu g L-1 for white tea.