Rapid Determination of Arsenic in Traditional Chinese Medicine by Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS)

Abstract

High arsenic (As) content in medicine may threaten health and its determination is necessary. However, traditional methods cannot achieve rapid analysis because of complex digestion procedures. Exploring rapid and accurate methods for the determination of As is urgent. In this study, the As concentration in niuhuangjiedu tablets (NHJDTs) was accurately and rapidly determined by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). Furthermore, comprehensive health risks of As were analyzed combined with solubility measurements to evaluate the impact on humans. The results showed that the relative standard deviation and relative error of the LIBS results were less than 10% for detection period of less than 0.3 h, which meets the requirements for rapid, accurate, and convenient As determination. The indices for non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risk for total As and soluble As in niuhuangjiedu tablets were 966.67, 0.15, 4.37, and 6.72 × 10−4, respectively, indicating the presence of potential health risks. This work provided support for further investigation for quality control of pharmaceutical products.