ANALYTICAL PROCEDURE FOR THE ANALYSIS OF PAHS IN BIOLOGICAL TISSUES BY GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY COUPLED TO MASS-SPECTROMETRY - APPLICATION TO MUSSELS

A rapid, selective and sensitive procedure for the analysis of Polycyc lic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in biological organisms has been deve loped and validated. The freeze-dried tissues were digested in ethanol ic KOH. After solvent partitioning, the extract was purified on alumin a and silica micro-columns and finally analyzed by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The final extract was free of mo st of the endogenous compounds. A quality assurance/quality control (Q A/QC) was carried out. The absolute loss of the target compounds at di fferent stages of the analytical procedure and during all of the proce dure was estimated (losses < 45%). The recoveries of PAHs were estimat ed using a certified standard compound solution (recoveries > 90%) and spiked mussels (recoveries = 100 +/- 6%). For validation a certified reference material mussel tissue (recoveries = 90 +/- 16%) was analyze d.