01 mars 2012

Determination of naturally occurring formaldehyde levels in sap and wood tissue of maple tree using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry

Auteurs : Luc Lagacé, Réjean Gaudy, Carolina Locas-Perez et Mustapha Sadiki

Cet article est disponible seulement en anglais (The Journal of AOAC INTERNATIONAL, Volume 95, Number 2, March-April 2012, pp. 394-398(5)) .

The occurrence of formaldehyde in sap and wood tissue of treated and untreated maple sugar trees was investigated using GC/MS. Samples were collected at different periods of the 2009 season and at different locations in Quebec, Canada. The natural concentration of formaldehyde found in untreated samples varied according to periods and locations and ranged from below the LOQ to 1.82 mg/kg for sap samples and from 2.39 to 8.92 mg/kg of fresh tissue for wood samples. Late season samples tended to have higher concentrations of formaldehyde. Samples of sap and wood tissue from tapholes treated with solutions of formaldehyde showed increased concentrations of formaldehyde for many days after treatment and were clearly distinct from untreated samples. These results will be useful to elaborate new inspection procedures for sugarbushes to control the illegal use of formaldehyde.