Analysis of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons to determine the best firewoods for fish smoking

Abstract

Firewood smoking is one of the traditional preservation techniques, still widely is being used in vari Lanka. It is commonly used to obtain desired flavors in certain products (ham, bacon and sausage). V fire woods are being used to generate smoke, which contains at least 100 Poly Aromatic Hydrocarb their alkylated derivatives. USEPA and EU listed 16 PAHs as hazardous compounds. Benzo[a]pyrene (B as a marker of the carcinogenic PAHs in smoke. This study investigated the PAHs content in smoke of selected firewoods aiming to find out suitable f food smoking. Nine commonly use, wood variety such as coconut (Cocos nucifera ) husk, coconut f (Borassus flabellifer), cinnamon (Cinnamomum celanicus), mango (Mangifera indica), jak (Artocarpus neem (Azadirachta indica), portia (Thespesia populnea) and weera (Drypetes sepiaria) from norther parts of Sri Lanka were selected for the study. A mixture of acetonitrile, acetone and toluene was use PAHs from smoke. In the PAHs analysis different PAHs were separated using an Agilent ZORBAX column. According to the analysis, naphthalene, acenapthylene, acenapthene, fluorene, phenanthrene, anthracen pyrene, benzo(a)anthracene, benzo(a)pyrene and benzo(k)fluoranthene were identified. Among them n prominent to all selected woods. Particularly palmyrah, jak and weera have considerable amount 67.37mg/L, and 38.55mg/L of naphthalene respectively. Probable carcinogenic compounds identified such as Benzo(a)anthracene (1.55mg/L,0.2mg/L), benzo(a)pyrene (1.18 mg/L,6.45mg/L) and benzo (0.41 mg/L,1.55mg/L) were detected in palmyrah and coconut husk smoke. Based on the findings amo woods tested, margosa, mango and portia can be selected as the best firewoods for smoking of fish.