This review would like to show the state of the art regarding the coupling of High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) with Electrochemical Detection (ED). Since a universal detector for HPLC is not available, the electrochemical detection methods, thanks to their versatility and specificity, are competitive with respect to the detectors currently used. The papers present in literature on HPLC-ED technique are analyzed and discussed: for example, they regard the development of analytical determinations of resveratrol, rosmarinic acid, aromatic heterocyclic amines and glyphosate in food matrices such as meat, aromatic plants, vegetables, fruit and tomato juices. These papers show that electrochemical sensors used as detectors for HPLC can offer better sensitivity values than other detectors. Furthermore, the use of specific working potentials allows avoid matrix interferences to be avoided by almost exclusively determining the analytes of interest. It should be underlined that HPLC-ED methods have a selectivity that allows for limitation of the sample preparation and clean-up procedures to a minimum, making them quick and easy to apply. In addition, these methods offer advantages such as the possibility of direct analysis, that derivatization is often not necessary, the cost-effectiveness of the instrumentation and the possibility of regenerating the electrodes which allows numerous analyses in succession.

The exposure of humans to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) through fruits is a scarcely investigated topic. The atmospheric deposition of PAHs could contribute to such an issue. The present paper would like to propose an easy, fast, and routinary analytical method to extract and quantify PAHs in apples, pears, and grapes. Dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction allowed us to recover PAHs ranging between 68.0 ± 1.2 and 96.2 ± 0.8% from fruit. Gas chromatography equipped with flame ionization detector analysis showed satisfactory analytical parameters, with details like R² > 0.9912 in a concentration range of 0.5–500 µg mL⁻¹, with a variability ranging within 0.7–2.3%. Rural fruit samples were found to be more contaminated by PAHs compared to urban samples, likely due to the use of non-green fuels in rural areas considered in this study. Further in-depth research on this topic is strongly recommended due to the relevance of fruits in the Mediterranean diet.

Wild plant biodiversity represents a largely untapped source of chemically diverse metabolites. However, many wild edible species remain poorly characterized despite their potential as sources of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory phytochemicals. Daucus carota L. subsp. carota, commonly known as wild carrot, has attracted interest due to its long history of medicinal use. In this study, seed extracts collected from populations growing in two Italian regions (Lazio and Molise) were investigated to evaluate their phytochemical composition, mineral content, antioxidant activity, and anti-inflammatory potential. The metabolite profiles were characterized by qualitative Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry analysis, allowing the identification of several phenolic compounds and other secondary metabolites. Antioxidant activity was assessed using in vitro assays, while anti-inflammatory activity was evaluated through the inhibition of cyclooxygenase and soluble epoxide hydrolase, two key enzymes involved in the arachidonic acid cascade. To gain further insight into the possible mechanisms underlying these activities, molecular docking analyses were performed on selected metabolites identified in the extracts, exploring their interactions with the target enzymes. The extracts displayed promising antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, while docking results supported the potential role of specific metabolites in enzyme modulation. These findings highlight the value of underexplored wild D. carota seeds as a source of natural compounds with potential applications in the development of nutraceutical and cosmeceutical products.

Honey is recognized as a valuable tool for environmental biomonitoring, while its contaminant content is relevant to food safety, requiring analytical methods for the simultaneous determination of multiple contaminants. In this study, an ultrasound–vortex-assisted dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (UVA-DLLME) procedure coupled with gas chromatography–ion trap mass spectrometry (GC–IT/MS) was developed for the simultaneous determination of pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in honey. The extraction solvent composition was optimized using different n-heptane/toluene mixtures, and the selected conditions were validated in terms of linearity, recovery, sensitivity, and precision. The optimized method provided recoveries between 70.2 and 112%, coefficients of determination (R²) from 0.9389 to 0.9998, limits of detection ranging from 0.40 to 21 ng g⁻¹, and intraday and interday relative standard deviations below 15%. The environmental performance of the sample preparation procedure was evaluated using the AGREEprep metric, giving an overall score of 0.52. Application of the method to 21 artisanal honey samples showed a generally low occurrence of the investigated contaminants, with PAHs being the most frequently detected compounds, whereas pesticides and PCBs were mostly below the limits of detection or quantification. The proposed method represents a solvent-efficient analytical procedure suitable for the multiclass determination of organic contaminants in honey.