Determination of selenium species in livestock meat using HPLC-ICP/MS

Abstract

ObjectiveTo apply high performance liquid chromatography-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry （HPLC-ICP/MS） to the analysis of five forms of selenium ［Se（Ⅵ）， Se（Ⅳ）， SeCys， MeSeCys， and SeMet］ in livestock meat.MethodsThe selenium species were extracted using the ultrasonic-assisted enzyme method， with C18 reversed-phase column （250 mm×4.6 mm， 5 μm） as the analytical column， 10 mmol/L citric acid and 5 mmol/L sodium hexane sulfonate （pH=4.0， containing 1% methanol） as the mobile phase， and an injection volume of 20 μL.ResultsFour selenium forms were separated in 7 min， with correlation coefficients greater than 0.999， indicating good linearity. The detection limits of Se（Ⅵ）， SeCys， MeSeCys， and SeMet ranged from 0.000 3-0.002 mg/kg. The spiked recoveries of selenium-enriched pork at three concentrations （low， medium， and high） ranged from 80.0% to 103.3%， with a relative standard deviation of less than 6.8%. Certified Reference Material ERM® BC210 revealed values within the standard range.ConclusionThe developed method was suitable for determining Se（Ⅵ） SeCys， MeSeCys， and SeMet in livestock meat. The meat was found to mainly contain SeMet and small amounts of MeSeCys and SeCys.

Keywords

• hplc-icp/ms
• livestock meat
• enzyme digestion
• selenium species