Trace Heavy Metal Levels in Microwave Digested Honey Samples from Middle Anatolia, Turkey
MUSTAFA TUZEN1 AND MUSTAFA SOYLAK2*
1. Gaziosmanpasa University, Faculty of Science and Arts, Chemistry Department, 60250 Tokat, Turkey
2. Erciyes University, Faculty of Art and Science, Department of Chemistry, 38039 Kayseri, Turkey
(Received: March 18, 2005; Accepted: May 26, 2005)
ABSTRACT
The concentrations of trace heavy metals (Pb, C d, Fe, C u, Mn and Z n) in 15 different honey samples collected from 15 different farms in Middle Anatolia, Turkey, were determined by flame and graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry after microwave digestion. The accuracy of the method was corrected by standard reference material (NIST-SRM 1515 Apple leaves). The contents of trace metals in honey samples were found to be in the range of 1.0~5.2 μg/g, 0.25~1.10 μg/g, 0.18~1.21 μg/g, 1.1~24.2 μg/g, 17.6~32.1 μg/kg and 10.9~21.2 μg/kg for Fe, C u, Mn, Z n, Pb and C d, respectively. Results obtained are in agreement with data reported in the literature.
Key words: trace metals, honey, microwave digestion, atomic absorption spectrometry, middle Anatolia-Turkey