Employing focused microwaves to counteract conventional Soxhlet extractiondrawbacks

New leaching approaches, with similar performance to conventional Soxhlet e xtraction but modified to allow assistance by focused microwaves (FM) irrad iation, are reviewed. The most relevant advantages of the FM-assisted Soxhl et extraction (FMASE) technique are a Targe reduction in the time required for quantitative extraction and substantial saving of extractant. The resul ts obtained, in terms of extracted mass and repeatability, are similar to t hose provided by the official method based on conventional Soxhlet extracti on, but with the above mentioned advantages. FMASE has also been tested in the analysis of environmental pollutants (namely, polycyclic aromatic hydro carbons, n-alkanes, pesticides and metal traces from solid matrices) and is a promising alternative as a leaching technique prior to individual separa tion-determination of these pollutants by high performance liquid chromatog raphy or gas chromatography coupled to absorption spectroscopy, fluorometry , flame ionisation, electron capture or mass spectrometry detectors. (C) 20 01 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.