SPECIATION OF ARSENOBETAINE IN MARINE ORGANISMS USING A SELECTIVE LEACHING DIGESTION PROCEDURE AND HYDRIDE GENERATION ATOMIC-ABSORPTION SPECTROMETRY/

An analytical process has been developed based on the selective leachi ng of arsenobetaine from marine organisms with methanol/chloroform (2: 1) and on a subsequent pressurized digestion of the methanol phase wit h a suitable acid combination (H2SO4/HNO3), followed by hydride genera tion atomic absorption spectrometry fbr the arsenic determination. The method has been successfully applied to the speciation of arsenobetai ne and the digestion procedure allows the determination of total arsen ic in the reference materials, CRM-278, a mussel tissue and TORT-I, a lobster's hepatopancreas, proving its reliability. Besides, the techni que developed was then applied to real marine organisms, such as the b lue mussels and the marine snails, Murex trunculus, a biomarker for ma rine pollution studies, all collected from an industrial region near A thens, the Elevsis Bay. The main species found in all investigated mar ine organisms was arsenobetaine, corresponding to 87-100% of total ars enic.