SURVEY OF THE COPPER CONTAMINATION IN SUGAR CANE BRANDIES PRODUCED IN MINAS GERAIS

The non-industrialized sugar cane brandy is, in general, produced in copper distillers which confer better quality to the product compared with those stills manufactured of other materials such as stainless steel, which is capable of contaminating the product when the management of the production is in an unsuitable manner. The contamination of sugar cane brandies occurs due to accumulation of verdigris on the walls of the distillers, which is made soluble in the sugar cane brandy. The excess of soluble copper (hypercupri) may be toxic due to the affinity of copper with S-H group of a number of proteins and enzymes, causing diseases as epilepsy, melanomas, rheumatoid arthritis and psychiatric diseases. So, the present work was designed to evaluate copper content in different sugar cane brandies and advise the manufacturers on possible contaminations and their influence on human heath. For such, 45 sugar cane brandy samples from different towns of Minas Gerais were analyzed as to their copper content in the Sugar Cane Brandy Physico-Chemical Analysis Laboratory of the Chemistry Department of the Universidade Federal de Lavras. The determination or quantification of the copper present in the sugar cane brandies was accomplished by means of spectrophotometric measures in the visible region of the spectrum at wavelength of 546 nm. Excessive copper contaminations, above the limit established by the Ministry of Agriculture and Supplying, were found in 6.7% of the samples. It was found also that some stills presented bad hygienization in some sectors which may have contributed to the rise in copper contents as well as of other products toxic to humans.