Speciation of Organoarsenic Species in Food of Animal Origin Using Accelerated Solvent Extraction (ASE) with Determination by HPLC-Hydride Generation-Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry (HG-AFS)

Concerning the residual organoarsenical feed additives, an effective method has been developed for the separation and determination of organoarsenic species including p-arsanilic acid (ASA), nitarsone (NIT) and roxarsone (ROX) in the food of animal tissue origin by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to ultraviolet oxidation hydride generation atomic fluorescence spectrometry using a C-18 column with 50 mM KH2PO4, 0.1 % v/v trifluoroacetic acid at pH 2.43 as the mobile phase. Accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) as an effective sample preparation method was used to deal with animal meat to extract organoarsenic species. The ASE conditions, including extraction solvent, temperature, static extraction time, flush volume and cycle time, were investigated in terms of extraction yield and species stability. In this paper, aimed to separate these species efficiently, the conditions of the mobile phase and HG system were also investigated. The methodology developed allows us limits of detection and quantification of 0.24, 0.74, 0.41 and 0.72, 2.24, 1.24 ng mL(-1) for ASA, NIT and ROX, respectively. This method was used to separate and determine three organoarsenic species in porcine and chicken liver samples that were purchased at a supermarket in China. At the optimized conditions, the ranges of concentrations of the three arsenic species were found to be varied from 3 to 9 ng mL(-1). The results of recovery rates and RSDs, which were higher than 94 % and lower than 5 %, respectively, approved it to be a convenient, fast and efficient method for the determination of organoarsenic species in animal tissue.