SPECIATION OF TRACE-ELEMENTS IN HUMAN-MILK BY HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY COMBINED WITH INDUCTIVELY-COUPLED PLASMA-MASS SPECTROMETRY

An investigation was undertaken with the aim of verifying whether it i s useful for the purpose of speciation studies to combine high perform ance liquid chromatography and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectro metry, applying the HPLC/ICP-MS coupled technique to the speciation of minor and trace elements which are of clinical and nutritional intere st in human milk. In particular, this method is meant to be used to de tect the chemical forms under which some elements of primary importanc e such as Al, Ba, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Fe, Li, Mg, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Sr, T1, V and Zn are present in human milk. Results show that experime ntal conditions must be carefully optimized to guarantee reliability o f data. Moreover, the data collected made it possible to more credibly assess the distributions to be expected for some elements in human mi lk and can contribute in clarifying some problems as regards their met abolic fate.