Simultaneous determination of 57 residual volatile organic solvents in honey by headspace gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

A method was developed for the simultaneous determination of 57 residual volatile organic solvents (including several alkanes, aromatic hydrocarbons, alcohols, ketones, esters and ethers) in honey by headspace gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-GC/MS). The honey sample was dissolved with water in a headspace vial, and the equilibration of the sample in the headspace vessel was achieved at 80 degrees C in 30 min. A DB-624 capillary chromatographic column (60 m x 0.25 mm x 1.40 mm) was used for the separation of 57 volatile organic solvents, and the analysis was performed by GC/MS. The external calibrations were used for the quantification. The linear ranges of the method were 0.005 - 0.2 microg for the alkanes, aromatic hydrocarbons and ethers, 0.05 - 2.0 microg for the esters, 0.5 - 20 microg for the ketones, 2.5 - 100 microg for the alcohols. The correlation coefficients were more than 0.996 for all the volatile organic solvents. The recoveries and the relative standard deviations were from 61.0% to 113.1% and 1.9% to 9.8%, respectively, at the spiked levels of 1.0 - 20 microg/kg for the alkanes, aromatic hydrocarbons and ethers, 10 - 200 microg/kg for the esters, 100 - 2 000 microg/kg for the ketones, 500 - 10 000 microg/kg for the alcohols. The limits of detection were 1.0 microg/kg for the alkanes, aromatic hydrocarbons and ethers, 10 microg/kg for the esters, 100 microg/kg for the ketones, 500 microg/kg for the alcohols. The method is simple, rapid, sensitive and accurate, and can be used for the simultaneous determination of residual volatile organic solvents in honey samples.