OPTIMIZATION OF THE EXTRACTION, CLEANUP AND DETERMINATION OF ARSENOBETAINE IN MANUFACTURED SEAFOOD PRODUCTS BY COUPLING LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY WITH INDUCTIVELY-COUPLED PLASMA-ATOMIC EMISSION-SPECTROMETRY

A study was carried out to develop and optimize a method for determini ng arsenobetaine (AB) in seafood products by coupling high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with inductively coupled plasma atomic e mission spectrometry (ICP-AES). Extraction, clean-up and instrumental determination of AB mere established in real samples representative of fish, molluscs and crustaceans. The analytical features of the method are: detection limit, 0.51 mu g g(-1) As dry mass (dm) or 0.13 mu g g (-1) As fresh mass (fm); relative standard deviation (n=6), 8% for coc kles, 5% for prawns, 4% for sole and 2% for the Canada National Resear ch Council Reference Material, DORM-1 (Dogfish Muscle) (n=3). The perc entage recovery for AB is: 87+/-6 (cockies), 86+/-2 (sole), 86+/-9 (pr awns). The analysis of DORM-1 provided an AB value of 16.5+/-0.9 mu g g(-1) As dm, agreeing with results obtained by other authors using HPL C-ICP-mass spectrometry.