Abstract
There are two methods for quantifying methylmercury (MeHg) in fish using GC-electron capture detection (ECD): AOAC INTERNATIONAL Official Method 988.11 and the Korean Food Code (KFC) method. Both of these methods consume a large amount of chemicals and require long pretreatment times because of several complicated MeHg extraction steps. In this study, a new method for the simple and rapid determination of MeHg in fish has been developed. The method is based on the investigation of oxygen combustion-gold amalgamation using a direct mercury analyzer (DMA) after the complete removal of MeHg by organic extraction and back-extraction to an aqueous medium. The DMA is suitable for the analysis of both solid and liquid materials and has a good detection limit. The developed method was validated by comparing the MeHg recoveries (%) of both certified reference materials and the market-purchased fish samples with the MeHg concentration obtained using the KFC method. The following parameters pertaining to the developed method were established: detection limit, 1.02 μg/kg; LOQ, 3.09 μg/kg; linearity (r), 0.9998; range, 0.1-300 μg/kg; and recovery, 95-97%. Our method is a promising alternative by virtue of its much simpler and faster sample pretreatment procedure, with a MeHg recovery as high as that of the KFC method. The developed method enables the simultaneous analysis of total Hg and MeHg with only DMA equipment.
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