RESUMO
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) occurrence in 50 samples marketed in the main supermarkets from Argentina was surveyed. A high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method was applied with fluorescence detection (FLD) and UV-VIS diodes array detector (DAD) for the analysis of 16 PAHs in "yerba mate" (Ilex paraguariensis), with recoveries higher than 89% and limits of detection and quantification lower than that found by other methodologies in previous studies. Contamination expressed as the sum of 16 analysed PAHs ranged between 224.6 and 4449.5 µg kg(-1) on dry mass. The contamination expressed as PAH4 (sum of benzo(a)pyrene, chrysene, benzo(a)anthracene and benzo(b)fluoranthene) varied between 8.3 and 512.4 µg kg(-1). The correlation coefficient for PAH2 (sum of benzo(a)pyrene and chrysene) and PAH4 groups was 0.99, for PAH2 and PAH8 (sum of benzo(a)pyrene, chrysene, benzo(a)anthracene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, benzo(k)fluoranthene, benzo(g,h,i)perylene, dibenzo(a,h)anthracene and indeno(1,2,3cd) pyrene) 0.97 and for PAH4 and PAH8 0.98.