Acetylene produced from CaC2 is used illegally to ripen fruits and is carcinogenic.
Hello Praveen,
I would digest a known weight of the fruit and then digest it using nitric acid initially. Then make the solution (if clear) to known volume, and analyse for calcium ising ICP-OES-MS. Replicates, operational standards, internal stadards and international standards must be inserted for validation purposes. ICP-OES measures analytes at ultatrace levels and is the best, quickest and accurate technique. Have a go.
We also have the same problem, person use CaC2 to ripen the fruit, not only gas form, use liquid form and spray it. But I dont think AAS or ICP-MS cant use for that analysis, because fruits already has Ca
I understand that the fruit has already got calcium which is a given. One can do Ca anaysis (by ICP-OES) of fruit without CaC2 (lots of analysis) and establish the base line and then determine the levels of Ca in fruit which was treated with CaC2. This will give information about the treated fruit within the boundaries of error.
@ Z. Aly: I guessed that it is difficult to do, because we have so many varieties, Eg: in USA or EU has one type of Banana, we have nearly more than 20 varieties. As well as Ca content of fruits change with the agricultural area (soil) and practices. Hence, that is difficult to make a base line fruits without added Ca.
Hello Praveen,
You can analyze calcium carbide (even industrial grade CaC2 has traces of heavy metals) by Proton Induced X-rays Emission (PIXE) and Inductive Couple Plasma-Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS). this can measure analytes at ultatrace levels and is the best, quickest and accurate technique. Have a go.
Best of Luck
I too looking for an answer for the determination of CaC2 in ripened fruits by any means. Please suggest me.
1. Wash the test fruit with 10mLof water
2. Take 1mL of the wash and mix with equal volume of sensor solution in a glass test tube and mix well. Prathap Kumar Shetty, the Head of the Food Science and Technology Department of Pondicherry University, developed a sensor solution (bio-functionalized gold nanoparticle)
3. The change in colour of solution from red to purple indicates that calcium carbide is used for ripening the fruit.
4. No change in colour of the solution indicates that calcium carbide was not used for ripening the fruit
We need to check how much calcium carbide can influence fruit penetrating biochemicals. Even if only surface is affected, it is recommended to thoroughly wash with water before consumption
Article Determination of Traces of Water in Hydrocarbons. A Calcium ...
Calcium carbide generates acetylene on treatment with water used for ripening of fruits like banana , mangoes etc. Wash the test fruit with water and take 1ml of the wash and mix with equal volume of sensor solution in a glass test tube .The change in colour of solution from red to purple indicates that
calcium carbide is used for ripening of the fruits. we can find out concentration by applying Beer -Lambert law by plotting O.D.vs Concentration standard plot & measuring the O.D. of unknown concentration.
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