Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) survey on tea (Camellia sinensis) commercialized in Argentina

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) occurrence in fifty-four samples of tea marketed in the main supermarkets from Argentina was described for the first time. A high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method was applied with fluorescence detector (FLD) and UV-VIS diodes array detector (DAD) for the analysis of sixteen PAHs in tea (camellia sinensis), with percentages recoveries higher than 84.5%. Contamination expressed as the sum of sixteen analysed PAHs was between 509.7 and 2746.5 μg kg−1 on dry mass and the mean was 930.4 μg kg−1 on dry mass.