Determination of cadmium residues in bee products using a ‘lab-made’ bismuth bulk electrode

ABSTRACT

Raw propolis and bee pollen has been widely used in different areas such as medicine, food and apitherapy because they have biological and medicinal properties. The beneficial effects of both bee products for human health include antibacterial, antiviral, antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties. However, hives exposure to heavy metals, due beekeeping practices and environment, is one of the problems facing beekeepers. The presence of cadmium in bee products should be controlled, because of its high toxicity. A lab-made Bismuth Bulk Electrode (BiBE) was developed for cadmium residue determination in Argentinean bee products such as raw propolis and bee pollen employing square wave anodic stripping voltammetry (SWASV) as electrochemical technique. The SWASV parameters were optimised based on a 2 ⁵ factorial design. The method presents a linear range from 2.00 to 100.0 µg L⁻¹ of Cd (II) with a limit of detection (LOD) and a limit of quantitation (LOQ) of 0.78 µg L⁻¹ and 2.61 µg L⁻¹, respectively. The repeatability was 8.03%, calculated as the relative standard deviation. Recovery experiments were performed using spiked raw propolis and bee pollen samples with standard deviation values from 1.16% to 7.20%. The BiBE is easy and fast to elaborate and the propose method is environmentally friendly and low cost. Then, it can be considered as a good alternative to the quality control of bee products due to its importance in the beekeeping industry.

KEYWORDS:

• Raw propolis
• bee pollen
• Cadmium
• environmental quality control
• bismuth bulk electrode
• square wave anodic stripping voltammetry

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the CONICET (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas), Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas -Provincia de Buenos Aires (Res. 813/13), SGCyT - Universidad Nacional del Sur, Argentina [PGI 24/Q059] and INQUISUR-CONICET.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas(CONICET); Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas - Provincia de Buenos Aires [813/13]; Secretaría General de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad Nacional del Sur [PGI 24/Q059]; INQUISUR-CONICET.