Control of potentially hazardous biologically active substances in the vegetable raw material

The relevance of control of potentially hazardous biological active substances is due to the increasingly wide application of vegetable raw materials and processed products not only in perfumery and medical industries, but also in the production of food products. To ensure the safe use of vegetable raw materials in food production, it is necessary to control the availability and content of potentially dangerous biologically active substances in the vegetable materials, processed products, flavorings and extracts. Requirements of the Technical regulations of the Customs Union to the content of potentially hazardous BAS in foods and beverages were established. Currently, the food industry is not sufficiently provided with methods of analysis of potentially hazardous food ingredients. This leads to the actual lack of control over their application. Directions and basic operations have been investigated and the methodology for instrumental analysis of BAS in food matrixes has been developed. Methods of sample preparation of the vegetable materials, based on the methodology, have been substantiated and techniques to identify and quantify the BAS (thujone and coumarin), which are regulated by the requirements of the Technical Regulations of the Customs Union, have been developed. The developed techniques have been tested with commercial samples of vegetable materials. As a result of testing, in the commercial samples of peppermint’s essential oil and wormwood’s tincture alpha-thujone was detected, and in the samples of herbs chamomile, lavender, sweet clover and cinnamon powder coumarin was found in the range of 0.01 to 3.8 mg/g. The results confirm the need to control potentially hazardous BAS in the vegetable raw materials and food ingredients in order to ensure compliance with the Technical Regulations of the Customs Union and food safety for consumers' health.

food safety, biological active substances, identification, determination quantity, high performance liquid chromatography, extraction