Overview
Chang and colleagues evaluated perilla seed oil against 15 reference oils for nutritional quality, elemental safety, physicochemical properties, and rat-model effects on hyperlipidemia. The elemental panel (Table 3) covered Na, Mg, K, Ca, Mn, Fe, nickel (Ni), Cu, Zn, arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), and lead (Pb) in all 16 oils by ICP-OES after microwave digestion, with n = 3 per oil. Palm oil was one of the 16 reference comparators. In palm oil, arsenic, cadmium, and lead were all not detected. Zinc was 1.78 plus or minus 0.05 micrograms per gram. The Chinese national standard GB 2762-2022 Pb limit for edible vegetable oils is 0.08 mg/kg; palm oil was well below that limit.
Key numbers
Palm oil elemental data (Table 3, mean plus or minus SD, micrograms per gram = mg/kg, n = 3):
| Element | Palm oil | Detection status |
|---|---|---|
| Na | 53.89 plus or minus 1.24 | detected |
| Mg | 10.48 plus or minus 0.32 | detected |
| K | 4.76 plus or minus 0.86 | detected |
| Ca | 13.71 plus or minus 0.88 | detected |
| Mn | not detected | below detection |
| Fe | not detected | below detection |
| nickel (Ni) | not detected | below detection |
| Cu | 0.02 plus or minus 0.01 | detected |
| Zn | 1.78 plus or minus 0.05 | detected |
| arsenic (As) | not detected | below detection |
| cadmium (Cd) | not detected | below detection |
| lead (Pb) | not detected | below detection |
Units: micrograms per gram (equivalent to mg/kg wet weight).
Chinese national standard GB 2762-2022 limits as reported in Table 3 (the paper lists these for context):
- Pb: 0.08 mg/kg (confirmed from regulatory text as micrograms per gram equivalent)
- As: a standard value is listed for the full panel but the As column value for the standard was not separately called out in the text
Comparison within the 16 oils: grape seed oil was the only oil with detectable As (0.03 plus or minus 0.02), Cd (0.08 plus or minus 0.01), and Pb (0.65 plus or minus 0.01 micrograms per gram). No other oil including palm oil had detectable As, Cd, or Pb.
LOD and LOQ: not reported. CRM: not reported. Recovery: not reported. This limits use of the non-detect values to bounding rather than quantification; the detection threshold is unknown.
Methods (brief)
ICP-OES (EXPEC 6100, Xiamen Puyuan, China) after microwave digestion (EXPEC 7905 super microwave). Digestion: 1.0 g sample with 3 mL 75% HNO3; 240 degrees Celsius, 4 MPa, 20 minutes. n = 3 per oil. Regulatory comparator: GB 2762-2022 (Chinese national food contaminant standard). No detection limits, blank values, CRM names, or recovery percentages are stated in the paper.
Implications
Certification: Palm oil’s non-detect result for As, Cd, and Pb in a commercially available refined Chinese-market oil is consistent with Thompson-Morrison et al. 2024 (As and mercury (Hg) below LOQ; Cd 15 µg/kg, Pb 75 µg/kg) and with the Chinese retail oils measured by Chang and colleagues showing no detectable toxic metals. The absence of LOD/LOQ information means the non-detect values cannot be assigned a numeric upper bound from this paper alone.
Courses: Useful as a multi-oil comparative study showing that of 16 commercial refined oils, only grape seed oil had consistently detectable As, Cd, and Pb. The case illustrates how oil type and processing origin affect contaminant levels.
App: Non-detect results for As, Cd, and Pb in palm oil from a Chinese commercial sample. These are consistent with other refined palm oil data and support a low-concentration characterisation for Chinese-market refined palm oil, but LOD is unknown.
Related evidence
- Palm oil
- Sesame Oil
- Soybean Oil
- Olive Oil
- Corn Oil
- Peanut Oil
- Other cooking oils (canola, sunflower, coconut, avocado, sesame)
- Lead
- Cadmium
- Arsenic
- Chemical elements in Elaeis guineensis materials and derived oil
- Measurement of Heavy Metals in Commercially Available Soybean and Palm Oils and Relevant Health Risk Assessment in Bangladesh
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