Identification of molecular species of selenium contained in several animal foods

抄録

To elucidate the molecular species of selenium ingested by usual animal foods, molecular species of selenium in several animal food samples were identified by HPLC-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS). The samples used were as follows: dark muscle of yellowfin tuna, fish meat (skipjack, horse mackerel, seabream, and yellowfin tuna)，shellfish (asari clams, shijimi clams, and oysters)，chicken tender, chicken and bovine liver, and hen’s whole eggs. An HCl extract and a protease extract were prepared for each sample. Except for the dark muscle, no peaks of selenium compounds could be detected in the analysis by HPLC-ICPMS for the HCl extracts. In contrast, the protease extracts from fish meat and shellfish showed a peak identified as selenomethionine in the HPLC-ICPMS chromatogram. Furthermore, it was confirmed that selenocystine was present in addition to selenomethionine in the protease extract from animal foods derived from poultry and livestock. These results indicate that the intake of general seafood leads to the intake of selenomethionine, and the intake of animal foods derived from livestock and poultry leads to the intake of selenomethionine and selenocystine.