Analysis Method for Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Plant and Soil Samples

There are large areas of contaminated soils by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in China and all over the world, posing great threats to ecology health and human lives. A novel and prospective analysis method of PAHs for environmental samples such as soils and plants is urgently needed for risk assessment of agricultural products and soil remediation. By using the ultrosonication extraction and HPLC/UV analysis techniques, a simple, available and instructive analysis method of PAHs for soil and plant samples was experimented. The recoveries of six tested PAHs including phenanthrene, anthracene, pyrene, fluoranthene, benzo[a]anthracene, and benzo[a]pyrene for ryegrass samples were 76.00%~103.1%, with relatively standard deviations (RSD) less than 4.1%. As to the soil samples including the dry soil (DS) and wet soil (WS, 50% of the field holding capacity), the recoveries of these PAHs were always larger than 85% with RSD smaller than 3.1%. In addition, the recoveries of PAHs for DS samples were generally higher than those for WS ones, while the RSD of the former was smaller than that of the latter. This potentially useful and prospective analysis method for environmental soil and plant samples would be of great importance for the soil restoration and risk assessment.