Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in soybean grains.

Abstract During the burning of the organic material (firewood) in the drying, combustion may occur incompletely, thus generating smoke contaminants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the furnaces. This study aimed to identify possible contamination by PAHs in soybean grains from storage units in municipalities in the Midwest region that have undergone drying in a direct-fired furnace with firewood as fuel. The soybean grains were collected in different municipalities of the Midwest region of Brazil, totaling 22 samples. A survey of possible contamination of soybean grains by PAHs was carried out using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography. The experiment was carried out in a completely randomized design with three replicates, and the data were subjected to analysis of variance, with means compared by Tukey test. The sum of the groups was: PAH4 - 1.45 μg kg−1 for Edeia (2), PAH8 - 2.97 μg kg−1 for Catalao (19) and PAHT - 5.06 μg kg−1 for Edeia (2); for benzo(a)pyrene, the sum was below 2.0 μg kg−1, not exceeded by the value of 0.64 μg kg−1 for Edeia (1). The values found of PAHs did not exceed the maximum limits established by the European Union, except for infant food.