The Column - June 2009 - 6

News Profiling honey Honey is a natural product of high quality but due to its limited production and relatively high price, some beekeepers and unscrupulous traders bulk it out with inexpensive syrups. These syrups are often manipulated to closely resemble the carbohydrate proﬁle of real honey and their detection can be difﬁcult. However, a team of researchers from the Université de Lyon has proposed a simple analytical method that could put an end to this practice.1 The team were interested in polysaccharides to see if they would make a good probe for quality control. High performance anion exchange chromatography-pulsed amperometric detection (HPAEC-PAD) was used to establish the ﬁngerprints of authentic honey samples, which were compared with adulterated samples prepared in the laboratory. This analytical method allowed detection of the addition of corn syrup at the 1% level in three ﬂoral types of honey. This led the team to conclude that the analysis of polysaccharides will be a simple and efﬁcient tool for honey quality control and detecting product adulteration. According to the team, if other varieties of honey and a range of syrups are analysed and characterized, a universal method could be developed. The team also speculate that other food products — such as natural fruit juices and maple syrup — could be analysed in a similar way. 1. M. Megherbi et al., J. Agric. Food Chem., 57, 2105–2111 (2009). The green approach Aromatic amines are commonly used as intermediates in a wide variety of industries and can pollute the environment through efﬂuent from chemical plants or as degradation products from products that contain aromatic amine or imine groups. Several of these are toxic and potentially carcinogenic, and as such have been included in a list of priority pollutants by the EPA. Now Chinese researchers have developed a novel and environmentally friendly sample enrichment technique for the analysis of aromatic amines in water.1 The technique known as “ultrasound-assisted ionic liquid dispersive liquid-phase microextraction” uses sonication with an ionic liquid to concentrate the sample and is, according to the researchers, sensitive, easy to perform, inexpensive and uses extremely low volumes of solvent. Qingxiang Zhou from the School of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences, Henan Normal University in Xinxiang, China, told LC•GC Europe: “This approach can, in theory, be adapted for other analytes as long as the analyte is soluble in an ionic liquid. We are currently using this approach for the enrichment of benzoylureas pesticides in water and have achieved good results. As ionic liquids can be designed for speciﬁc experimental requirements, the enrichment factor and selectivity can be tuned for individual analyses and the sensitivity can be enhanced by increasing volume.” “In this method, the volume of ionic liquid may change according to the sample volume and the requirement of the method and achieve a better sensitivity,“ said Zhou. “This approach offers environmentally benign extraction and does not generate secondary pollution. It competes well against existing techniques and can play an important role in the trace analysis of pollutants in the future.” 1. Q. Zhou, X. Zhang and J. Xiao, J. Chrom. A, 1216, 4361–4365 (2009). 6 1 9 Contents Tips & Tricks 2 13 Vosloo Rainville and Mather 6 17 News Meeting Review 8 20 Market Trends & Analysis Events & Contacts

The Column - June 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Column - June 2009