TRITIUM ANALYSIS OF BURN-DERIVED WATER FROM NATURAL AND PETROLEUM-DERIVED PRODUCTS

A practical means of using tritium to authenticate a natural versus a synthetic (petroleum-derived) origin of food and flavoring extracts ha s been demonstrated. Extracts derived from natural botanicals reflect a tritium content incorporated during the plant's growth stages, while petroleum-derived products, because of the relatively short half-life of tritium, have no measurable tritium content. Natural and petroleum -derived samples of the common flavorant benzaldehyde were combusted b y Parr bomb and enriched in tritium using an alkaline electrolysis tec hnique. Tritium activities were measured using an ultra-low-level liqu id scintillation counter, with the results demonstrating a clear diffe rence in the tritium content of natural and petroleum-derived benzalde hyde samples and a good agreement between the natural sample and the s teady-state concentration of tritium reported for the northern hemisph ere.