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Updated: Jun 28, 2026

Determination of Inorganic Arsenic in a Wide Range of Food Matrices using Hydride Generation - Atomic Absorption Spectrometry.
Published on: September 1, 2017
Quantification of arsenic compounds using derivatization, solvent extraction and liquid chromatography electrospray
Meng Huang1, Yi-Ting Wang, Paul C Ho
1Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore, 18 Science Drive 4, Singapore 117543, Singapore.
Abstract:
The difficulty in detecting inorganic arsenic compounds using conventional settings of mass chromatography has led to the use of derivatizing agents to aid in their detection. A recent study indicated that 2,3-dimercaptopropanol (BAL) could be used to derivatize arsenic compounds to make them detectable by LC coupled to UV detector. A speciation analysis method was then developed for arsenic compounds after derivatization using the LC-MS/MS with the aim to improve the sensitivity and specificity. The arsenic compounds were derivatized with BAL before solvent extraction was carried out. The resultant extract was analyzed using the LC-MS/MS. However, our finding showed that BAL, being a thiol, reduced the pentavalent arsenic compounds, As(V) to a trivalent state, As(III). The arsenic metabolites, monomethyl arsonate (MMA) and dimethyl arsenic acid (DMA) could also be reduced by BAL to As(V)- and As(III)-BAL adducts. Despite this, the assay could be used to quantify the total arsenic concentration as a summation of all these adducts, when speciation of individual arsenic species is not required. The developed LC-MS/MS assay was subsequently applied to detect arsenic compounds in rat urine samples after oral administration of arsenic trioxide.
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