The identification of some water-soluble arsenic species in the marine brown algae Fucus distichus

The extraction and clean-up procedures developed to isolate the water-soluble arsenic species present in the marine macroalga Fucus distichus, from British Columbia, Canada, are described, The arsenic species were extracted into methanol and then subjected to gel-permeation and ion-exchange chromatography, Fractions high in arsenic were identified by using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy (GF-AAS), and further investigated by using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (HPLC-ICP MS), By using different HPLC columns and mobile-phase conditions, the four major arsenic-containing compounds present in the macroalga were positively identified as arsenosugars; one minor compound remained unidentified. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.