Abstract:

Hydride generation atomic fluorescence spectrometry was used to develop a rapid and simple method for the determination of total selenium in the fruit body of Agaricus blazei. Either wet digestion or high-pressure microwave assisted digestion was used for sample preparation before hydride generation atomic fluorescence spectrometric analysis. A 1000 μm/mL selenium standard solution was used to examine the effects of the concentration of hydrochloric acid as current carrier, sodium borohydride concentration and the concentration of hydrochloric acid as medium acid on fluorescence intensity. The method exhibited a linear range between 1.0 and 10.0 ng/mL, a limit of detection of 0.002 ng/mL, precision RSDs for 10 replicates ranging between 1.32% and 4.11% and spike recoveries (5 replicates) ranging between 92.89% and 106.49%. The method is simple and accurate, thereby providing a good method for the determination of selenium in the fruit body of Agaricus blazei.

Key words: Agaricus blazei, atomic fluorescence spectrometry, selenium