Arsenobetaine in the red crab, Chionoecetes opilio

The meat of the red crab, Chionoecetes opilio, caught near the central coast the Japan Sea, was extracted with methanol. The arsenic compounds were isolated from this extract and purified by anion and cation exchange chromatography and thin-layer chromatography. Three arsenic compounds were detected. The major arsenic compound, identified as arsenobetaine by TLC, proton NMR spectroscopy, and high pressure liquid chromatography with an atomic absorption spectrometer as an arsenic-specific detector, accounted for 90% of the total arsenic in the crab meat. The other two arsenic compounds could not be identified because of insufficient amounts available for analysis.