MONITORING TRANSMISSION OF POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBON (PAH) LEVELS THROUGH PROCESSED ARACHIS HYPOGEA SHELLS TO SEEDS

Arachis Hypogea, a common delicacy consumed either boiled or roasted in most parts of Nigeria was assessed to determine the level of transmission of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) through the shells to the seeds following boiling and roasting. Samples collected were extracted with a mixture of hexane (75%) and dichloromethane (25%) then analyzed with gas chromatography coupled to flame ionization detector. The results revealed that the total PAH concentrations (µg/kg) in the groundnut shell samples were un-boiled (1.1816) and boiled (1.0924) while the concentrations in the seeds were 0.6303, 0.5868 respectively. For the roasted groundnut; Total PAH concentrations in the non-roasted and roasted shells were 0.5164, 1.0384 while the total PAH concentrations in the seeds were 0.5292 and 0.6144 respectively. The % PAH Contamination Level (PCL) revealed that processing by boiling contaminated the shell with Fluoranthene (58 %), Benzo[b]Fluoranthene (31%) and Benzo[a]Pyrene (24%) while only acenaphthylene contaminated the seed by this process. On the other hand, % PAH contamination levels for roasted groundnut shells was in the range of 0-92 % with Fluorene, Chrysene, Benzo[b]Fluoranthene, Indeno[1,2,3-cd]Pyrene and Benzo[g,h,i]Perylene not contaminating it by the process while Fluoranthene (92%) was the most contaminated PAH. Similarly, the seed was contaminated in the range of 0-29% with only acenaphthylene not contaminating it by the process. However, the level of contamination were lower than observed for the shell which could suggest that the shells shielded the seeds from much contamination by the PAHs while those that contaminated the seeds could have been by absorption through the pores. Furthermore, the PAH transfer Potential (PTP) determined from the study indicated there were varying degrees of potential PAH transport from the shells to the seeds at values >0.The study recommends that boiled groundnut seed could have less potential for cancer causing than the roasted groundnut seed based on the level of contamination. Sensitization on the likely effect of consuming these processed foods should be promoted.