Arsenic Speciation in Humans and Food Products: A Review

Abstract

Although acute intoxication has become rare, arsenic (As) is still a dangerous pollution agent for industrial workers and people living in the vicinity of emission sources. In humans, only inorganic As is toxic; organic forms present in large amounts in the environment are nontoxic. It is therefore important to be able to differentiate one group from the other using appropriate speciation methods. The authors review the present knowledge of the distribution of As in humans and food products. The three steps of the speciation methods (sample preparation, species separation, and detection) are described. For liquid samples, a clean-up step (C18 cartridge extraction, dilution, or freezing) is necessary to eliminate proteins and salts from the matrix. For solid organic samples, the first step consists of the digestion of tissues followed by solvent extraction sometimes coupled with a C18 extraction. The separation of As species is accomplished by different high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) methods (ion-exchange, ion-pairing, and micellar liquid chromatography). The detection methods are compatible with HPLC and are able to detect As species in the microgram-per-liter range. Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) atomic emission spectrometry is more frequently used, but suffers from interference by organic solvents in the mobile phases. Atomic absorption spectrometry methods give sensitivities of the same order. ICP-mass spectrometry has the advantage of specificity and can be 100- to 1000-fold more sensitive than previous methods.

Speciation Analysis of Arsenics in Commercial Hijiki by High Performance Liquid Chromatography-tandem-mass Spectrometry and High Performance Liquid Chromatography-inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry

“…6,7) Previous studies on arsenic in seaweed have shown that the majority of arsenic can easily be extracted by water or water/methanol extraction. 34) Our values of the total-As obtained by water extraction using ultrasonication are consistent with the values already reported. 8,9,15,31) The present study indicates that AsSugs in hijiki account for 3.7-27.6% of total-As (Table 4).…”

Analysis of diphenylarsinic acid in human and environmental samples by HPLC-ICP-MS

“…4,5 The toxicity of arsenic, as well as its environmental cycling, is heavily dependent on the chemical species, and the development of methods for speciation analysis has been a key component in arsenic studies. 6,7 In spring 2003, severe arsenic contamination of groundwater was uncovered in Kamisu-town, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. Several residents using the same well water fell ill with characteristic nervous symptoms.…”

Elemental Profiling: Its Role and Regulations

“…The concentrations of several trace elements vary considerably even in foods belonging to similar groups belonging to different groups. The problem of trace element analysis can be overcome by freeze-drying of mixed diets as this may lead to six fold enrichment of the component (Benramdane, 1999;Aceto, 2002).…”

“…Pharmaceutical industries (metals in wine (Aceto, 2002), arsenic in food (Benramdane, 1999), and trace elements bound to proteins Biological samples (Ma, 2004). Precious metal estimation at low level, Heavy metal estimation at sub ppm level Rock, Soil, Fly ash (Complete analysis), Environmental sample analysis (Water, Air, Soil, sediments, etc.)…”