Biomonitoring of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, heavy metals, and plasticizers residues: role of bees and honey as bioindicators of environmental contamination.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), heavy metals, and plasticizer residues are continuously released into the environment. The use of living organisms, such as Apis mellifera L. and honey, is advantageous as bioindicator of the environmental health status, instead of traditional monitoring methods, showing the ability to record spatial and temporal pollutant variations. The PAHs and heavy metal presence were determined in two sampling years (2017 and 2018) in five different locations in the Molise region (Italy), characterized by different pollution levels. During 2017, most PAHs in all samples were lower than limit of detection (LOD), while in 2018, their mean concentration in bee and honey samples was of 3 µg kg-1 and 35 µg kg-1, respectively. For heavy metals, lower values were detected in 2017 (Be, Cd, and V below LOD), while in 2018, the mean concentrations were higher, 138 µg kg-1 and 69 µg kg-1, in bees and honey, respectively. Honey has been used as indicator of the presence of phthalate esters and bisphenol A in the environment. The satisfactory results confirmed that both bees and honey are an important tool for environmental monitoring. The chemometric analysis highlighted the differences in terms of pollutant concentration and variability in the different areas, validating the suitability of these matrices as bioindicators.

Levels of Nitrates and Nitrites in Chili Pepper and Ventricina Salami.

Ventricina is a traditional sausage made from pork meat produced in the Abruzzi and Molise regions. The aim of this study was to detect the content of nitrates and nitrites in local cultivars of chilli pepper, and their concentration in ventricina samples spiced with the same chilli pepper. Furthermore, it was examined whether, in the samples of ventricina with nitrate addition, the spicing with chilli pepper could exceed the maximum added dose. The concentration of nitrates and nitrites in the organic chilli pepper was 531.0±94.6 mg/kg and less than 5.0 mg, respectively, in the traditional chilli pepper it was 394.0±39.6 and less than 5.0 mg, while in the commercial it was 325.0±115.0 and less than 5.0 mg. The determination of nitrites and nitrates was carried out by high performance ion chromatography. In ventricina samples produced without added sodium nitrate, nitrates and nitrites were below 5.0 mg/kg at the case-filling time (t0) and after 50 days of aging (t50). In the samples of ventricina with added sodium nitrate, nitrate concentration values were 134.0±20.9 mg/kg at t0 and 129.0±15.4 mg/kg at t50, while the nitrites were below 5.0 mg/kg at t0 and 28.8±15.8 mg/kg at t50. Although in ventricina the amount of chilli pepper is quite relevant, it did not lead to a detectable concentration of nitrates. The maximum allowed amount was never exceeded.