Abstract:

Selenium contents and speciations in powder and capsules containing selenium-enriched Bifidobacterium subjected to cell wall disruption by combinatorial ultrasonic and enzymatic hydrolysis method were determined by high performance liquid chromatography connected with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HPLC-ICP-MS). Results indicated that the selenium contents in powder and capsules containing selenium-enriched Bifidobacterium were (168.11 ± 2.26) μg/g and (15.68 ± 0.07) μg/g, respectively. The selenium content in capsules containing selenium-enriched Bifidobacterium was nearly 100 times as high as that of commercially available selenium-enriched rice, but was less than one tenth of that of commercially available selenium-enriched yeast. A complicated selenium speciation was found in selenium-enriched Bifidobacterium products, and the major amino acid containing selenium was selenomethionine (SeMet), which was up to 59% of total selenium amount.

Key words: selenium-enriched Bifidobacterium, speciation, high performance liquid chromatography, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry