Establishment of chromatographic conditions for selenium species in eggs using HPLC-ICP/MS.

The bioavailability and toxicity of selenium are dependent on its chemical forms. Organic selenium has higher bioavailability and lower toxicity than inorganic selenium. This study tried to establish the optimal chromatographic conditions for selenium speciation in eggs using HPLC-ICP/MS instrument. The results showed when provided HPLC a 1.0 mL/min flow rate of ammonium acetate and a PRP-X100 anion exchange column, retention times for SeCys, MeSeCys, SeMet, sodium selenite or sodium selenate were 160, 215, 375, 570, and 710 seconds, respectively. To set up the calibration curve for five selenium species, a concentration ranging from 0.2 to 10 µg/L (0.2, 0.5, 1, 3, 5, 10 µg/L) was prepared. Relative coefficients of the five species were above 0.999, indicating that the calibration curve has a good linear correlation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]