Elemental composition, rare earths and minority elements in organic and conventional wines from volcanic areas: The Canary Islands (Spain)

Determination of Metal Content by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry in Polish Red and White Wine Samples in Relation to Their Type, Origin, Grape Variety and Health Risk Assessment

The main objective of the research was to assess the influence of selected factors (type of wine, grape variety, origin, alcohol content and daily consumption) on the concentration levels of 26 elements in 53 Polish wine samples, also using chemometric analysis tools. Concentration of Al, As, B, Ba, Be, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Li, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sb, Se, Sr, Ti, V, Zn and Zr was analyzed by ICP-MS, while concentration of Ca, Na, K and Mg was determined by ICP-OES. White wines were characterized by higher concentrations of Al, As, Be, Ca, Co, Cu, Fe, Hg, Li, Mg, Na, Pb, Sb, Ti, V, Zn and Zr (mean values: 0.075-86,403 μg·L-1 in white wines, 0.069-81,232 μg·L-1 in red wines). Red wines were characterized by higher concentrations of Ba, Cd, Cr, K, Mn, Se and Sr (mean values: 0.407-1,160,000 μg·L-1 in white wines, 0.448-1,521,363 μg·L-1 in red wines). The results obtained for the health risk assessment indices, including the Target Hazard Quotient (THQ, mean values per glass of wine: 2.097 × 10-5 (Cr)-0.041 (B) in all wines), indicate that the analyzed elements do not show a potential toxic effect resulting from wine consumption. The chemometric analysis confirmed that elements such as Li, Ti, Ca, Mn, Sr, Ba, Zn, Mg, Cu, Se and B were closely related to local conditions and soil properties, and the presence of Fe, Cr, V and Pb was related to contamination of the soil.

Can Rare Earth Elements Be Considered as Markers of the Varietal and Geographical Origin of Wines?

The possibility of establishing the varietal and territorial affiliation of wines by the content of rare earth elements (REE) in them was studied. ICP-OES and ICP-MS with subsequent chemometric processing of the results were applied to determine the elemental image of soils containing negligible REE amounts, grapes grown on these soils, and wine materials of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Moldova varieties produced from these grapes. To stabilize and clarify wine materials, the traditional processing of wine materials with various types of bentonite clays (BT) was used, which turned out to be a source of REE in the wine material. Discriminant analysis revealed that the processed wine materials were homogeneous within one denomination and that those of different denominations were heterogeneous with respect to the content of REE. It was found that REE in wine materials were transferred from BT during the processing, and thus they can poorly characterize the geographical origin and varietal affiliation of wines. Analysis of these wine materials according to the intrinsic concentrations of macro- and microelements showed that they formed clusters according to their varietal affiliation. In terms of their influence on the varietal image of wine materials, REE are significantly inferior to macro- and microelements, but they enhance their influence to a certain extent when used together.

Impact of chemical elements released by the volcanic eruption of La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain) on banana agriculture and European consumers

The recent volcanic eruption on the island of La Palma has aroused the concern of banana producers and consumers, given that in its area of influence there are thousands of hectares of banana plantations with an annual production of about 100 million kilos for export. Since volcanoes are one of the main natural sources of heavy metal contamination, we sampled bananas from the affected area and determined the concentrations of 50 elements (Ag, Al, As, Au, Ba, Be, Bi, Cd, Ce, Co, Cr, Cu, Cu, Dy, Er, Eu, Fe, Ga, Gd, Hg, Ho, In, La, Lu, Mn, Mo, Nb, Nd, Ni, Os, Pb, Pd, Pm, Pr, Pt, Sb, Sc, Se, Sm, Sn, Sr, Ta, Tb, Th, Ti, Tl, Tm, U, Y, Yb and Zn). The levels of 36 elements were elevated but the washing implemented after the eruption can remove a good part. After the washout, bananas have elevated levels of Fe, Al, Ti, V, Ba, Pb, most of the rare earth elements, Mo, and Co. In all cases, except Mo, the elevation is much higher in the peel than in the flesh. In the case of Mo, the elevation in banana flesh would translate into a higher nutritional intake of this trace element, which could represent up to 35% of the daily nutritional requirements. Exposure to toxic or potentially toxic elements, does not represent a health risk, since would not exceed 5% of the tolerable daily intake, even in the worst-case scenario.