Modern Chemistry & Applications

Abstract

Concentration Level of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Emitted from Oud Incense: Al-Baha City, Southwest Saudi Arabia

Hiba Abdalla Mahgoub and Nimir Ali Salih

Burning incense often produces air pollutants that may represent a health risk for humans. The Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) were identified in Oud incense which is matter of great concern because nowadays, incense is used inside homes as well as in public places and its adverse health effect cannot be ignored. Our main objective was to assess the concentration of individual PAHs compound in the smoke of Oud incence. The PAHs concentrations were determined by using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). All Oud samples were collected from local market of Al-Baha city southwest Saudi Arabia. The total mean concentration of PAHs in Oud samples was 2.79 mg/m3 and the mean concentration of individual PAHs namely naphthalene, acenaphthene, acenaphthylene, fluorene, phenanthrene, anthracene, fluoranthene, pyrene, chrysene, benzo(a)anthracene, benzo(b)fluoranthene and benzo(a) pyrene was 0.10, 0.26, 1.22, 0.12, 1.06, 0.02, 0.32, 0.26, 0.03, 0.10, 0.08 and 0.18 mg/m3 respectively. The highest values of total PAHs were 5.72 and 4.05 mg/m3 found in samples 5 and 7 respectively and the lowest total concentration of 1.25 mg/m3 was found in sample 3. The dominant PAHs were acenaphthylene, fluorene, phenanthrene, fluoranthene and pyrene.