Speciation of Selenium in Enriched Garlic Sprouts by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography Coupled with Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

Selenium species in enriched garlic (Allium Sativum L) sprouts were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (HPLC-ICP-MS). The garlic was grown in a 10 mg/L selenite nutrient solution, and the total selenium accumulated by the sprouts was 250 µg/g. Three mobile phase systems were investigated and a buffer of 20 mmol/L ammonium acetate/5% methanol was chosen for subsequent analysis. Comparative experiments were performed to determine the selenium species in the garlic sprouts with four extraction solutions: 0.1 mol/L HCl, 0.1 mol/L NaOH, 20 mmol/L ammonium acetate/5% methanol and protease XIV. The most suitable results were obtained using 0.1 mol/L HCl as the extracting solution. Validation was performed; all selenium compounds had recoveries of 102.5% to total selenium, with good linearity and precision. The major compound accumulated in the garlic sprouts was methylselenocysteine, which accounted for 65.01% of the selenium.