Arsenic-containing lipids are natural constituents of sashimi tuna

Arsenic occurs naturally in many types of seafood as water- and fat-soluble organoarsenic compounds. Although water-soluble compounds have been well characterized, the fat-soluble compounds, so-called arsenolipids, have until recently remained unknown. We report that sashimi-grade tuna fish, with a total arsenic content of 5.9 microg of As/g dry mass, contains approximately equal quantities of water- and fat-soluble arsenic. The water-soluble arsenic comprised predominantly arsenobetaine (>95%) with a trace of dimethylarsinate. Two fat-soluble compounds, which together accounted for about 40% of the lipid-arsenic, were isolated and characterized. The first was identified as 1-dimethylarsinoylpentadecane [(CH(3))(2)As(O)(CH(2))(14)CH(3)] by comparison of HPLC/mass spectrometric data and accurate mass data with those of an authenticated synthesized standard. The second arsenolipid was postulated as 1-dimethylarsinoyl all-cis-4,7,10,13,16,19-docosahexane from mass spectrometric data and analogy with non-arsenic-containing lipids found in fish. The remaining fat-soluble arsenic consisted of less polar arsenolipids of currently unknown structure. This is the first identification of arsenolipids in commonly consumed seafood.