Progress in the pretreatment and analysis of N-nitrosamines: an update since 2010

Abstract

As highly toxic substances, N-nitrosamines (NAs) have been proved to cause carcinogenesis and mutagenesis in humans. Therefore, to carefully monitor safety and preserve human health, the development of rapid, accurate, and high-sensitivity determination methods of NAs is of substantial importance. This review provides a current-status comprehensive summary of the pretreatment and determination methods of NAs in various samples since 2010. Common pretreatment methods that have been used to extract and purify targets include solid-phase extraction, liquid-liquid extraction and various microextraction methods, such as solid-phase microextraction and liquid-phase microextraction, among others. Determination methods include liquid chromatography, gas chromatography, supercritical fluid chromatography and electrochemical methods, among others. In addition, we discuss and compare the advantages and disadvantages of various pretreatment and analytical methods and examine the prospects in this area.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Analytical methods
• contamitants
• food safety
• N-nitrosamines
• pretreatment
• review

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (CIFMS) (NO. 2016-I2M-1-001); Scientific Research Project of Department of Education of Liaoning Province (ZF2019036); Key Program of the Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province of China (No. 20170541027); Liaoning planning Program of philosophy and social science (No. L17BGL034); Major subject in education research funded by Chinese Medical Association Medical Education Branch and China Association of Higher Education Medical Education Professional Committee (No. 2018A-N19012).