Determination of carcinogenic benzo(a)pyrene in heat treated black tea samples from Turkey by using HPLC-fluorescence detection system

A rapid, simple, and cost-efficient extraction method was developed for evaluating and screening benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) in tea samples by using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with coupled fluorescence detector (FLD) in order to obtain the best extraction performance. In this study, it was observed that when optimized using microwave assisted extraction (MAE) method was performed twice for 2 min using 10 mL n-hexane: acetonitrile (1:3, v/v). The recoveries for BaP in tea were found to be 97 ± 2; 83 ± 8 and 92 ± 6%, respectively. Using classical solid-liquid extraction (CSLE), it was observed that when the extraction procedure was performed twice for 4 min with 10 mL n-hexane: acetonitrile (3:1,v/v). The recoveries for BaP in tea were found to be 104 ± 5; 81 ± 9 and 86 ± 8%, respectively. The levels of BaP in tea were found to change in the range from 0.75 to 0.83 µg kg^-1 (MAE) and 0.72 to 0.86 µg kg^-1 (CSLE). Although the matrix of tea is complex, BaP was detectable without doing any cleaning up procedures.