Sensitive Determination of Pb in Adipose Tissue Using Dithizone with Micellar Media

The determination of inorganic constituents in biological samples of high fat content is usually accomplished with atomic spectrometry methods. Their use is often preceded by challenging analytical preparation steps like clean-up, dry or wet digestion and extraction. Micellar systems and emulsions are increasingly utilized in separation and preconcentration procedures because they permit the design of simple, rapid and non-toxic extraction schemes. The method applied in this work includes direct spectrophotometric determination of lead in adipose tissue by reaction with dithizone in cationic surfactant medium (CTAB). The sensitivity and accuracy of method for trace lead determinations was compared with ETAAS measurements of microwave digested tissues and samples of the most similar reference materials. Both methods revealed that lead content in examined adipose tissue was lower than estimated level of dietary exposures for adults (1.16 µg kg-1, ESFA, 2012).