Updated 5/17/18.
Procedure Overview
The method for sampling honey and beeswax is still being developed. Honey has been our primary focus. The beeswax process has not yet been developed. The following process is continually being optimized.
- Obtain honey.
- Mix honey with a solvent.
- Place honey solution in labeled vials.
- Run through the GC-MS to obtain results.
- Honey vials are then disposed in accordance to the College's substance limit. In other words, waste material cannot exceed a certain amount - that's why we can only accept a certain amount of samples at a time.
Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS)
The GC-MS is an analytical method which combines the features of gas-chromatography and mass spectrometry to identify substances in a sample. For our purposes, the honey solutions will be placed in vials specific to the GC-MS instrument. Then, the Solid Phase Micro-Extraction (SPME) fiber will obtain information by the machine's automatic placement in the head-space of the honey vial. Particles of the honey will coat the fiber and yeild results which inform the user of specific molecules present in the honey - this is how we identify pesticide compounds in honey samples.
Learn more about GC-MS here.
Learn more about SPME here.
Learn more about GC-MS here.
Learn more about SPME here.
Header image obtained from https://pixabay.com/
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