Determination of oxalate, sulfate and nitrate in honey and honeydew by ion-chromatography

An ion chromatographic method for determining the anions oxalate, sulfate and nitrate in honey and honeydew samples is described. To prevent matrix interference and to isolate the anions a clean-up step using solid-phase extraction on anionic cartridges and eluting with a 0.01 M chromate solution is recommended. The anions are separated on an anionic column with a mobile phase of borate–gluconate buffer and using conductimetric detection. The method is applied to the analysis of samples from different botanical origin.