Van Hulle et al. 2004 - Laminaria ingestion arsenic metabolism

Van Hulle and colleagues studied arsenic metabolites in human urine, blood, serum, and packed cells after healthy volunteers ingested Chinese supermarket Laminaria. The occurrence-relevant food matrix is the Laminaria sample itself; urine, blood, serum, packed-cell, and simulated-gastric-fluid values are retained as exposure and metabolism context. The source reports total arsenic in the seaweed and identifies DMA, MA, and DMAE as urinary metabolites, but it does not report an inorganic-arsenic concentration for the seaweed.

Key numbers

Food-matrix value:

Urine arsenic after unboiled Laminaria ingestion:

Table 3 reports arsenic concentrations in blood compartments of two volunteers as ng g-1, mean ± sd:

Simulated gastric-fluid findings:

• For boiled Laminaria incubated in simulated gastric fluid, INAA measurements showed total arsenic in each sample remained between 14.3 and 16.3 mg kg-1 As.
• In the same experiment, the amounts of arsenosugars and DMA decreased while a compound with mass 254 Da increased.
• The MRM transitions recorded were 255 -> 195 for the compound with mass 254 Da, 329 -> 97 for arsenosugar OH, 139 -> 109 for DMA, 483 -> 97 for arsenosugar PO4, and 393 -> 97 for arsenosugar SO3.
• The authors state that non-boiled Laminaria showed similar results, but the arsenosugar breakdown was slower and DMA remained stable.

Methods (brief)

The Laminaria sample was bought at a Chinese supermarket in Beijing and stored at room temperature before analysis. Volunteers ingested 20-25 g (dry mass) of algae within 30 min after the seaweed was cleaned with tap water and rinsed with deionized water; some experiments used unboiled Laminaria and one used boiled Laminaria. Total arsenic in the algae was measured by instrumental neutron activation analysis; urine total arsenic used ICP-MS, blood/serum/packed-cell arsenic used HGAFS after acid digestion, and speciation used HPLC-ICP-MS plus HPLC-ES-MS/MS structural confirmation. Simulated gastric fluid followed US Pharmacopeia composition, used pH about 1.2, and incubated seaweed at 37 °C.

Implications

This source is useful as seaweed exposure-context evidence, not as a broad occurrence survey. It anchors the ingested Laminaria at 43.2 ± 0.4 mg kg-1 total arsenic, then documents how arsenosugar-derived species appeared in urine and how blood-compartment arsenic did not show a marked rise through 7 h. Because the paper does not report inorganic arsenic in the seaweed, total arsenic from this source should not be substituted for iAs.

Wiki pages this source may touch

• seaweed-kelp-foods
• seaweed
• arsenic-total

Verification notes

• Identity checks before writing found no existing source page for DOI 10.1039/B307457A, raw handle MFK_vanhulle2004, title text, or cite key vanhulle2004-laminaria-arsenic-metabolism.
• Text was extracted to /tmp/hmi-seaweed-064.txt with pdftotext -layout; title/authorship, Methods, Table 1, Table 2, Table 3, Results/Discussion, and Figure 7 caption text were readable.
• All Key numbers were checked against /tmp/hmi-seaweed-064.txt, especially the 43.2 ± 0.4 mg kg-1 Laminaria total-arsenic statement, urinary peak values, Table 3 blood-compartment values, and the simulated-gastric-fluid text.
• Units and bases are preserved as mg kg-1, g (dry mass), ng mL-1, ng g-1, h, min, mL, °C, and Da; no unit conversion was performed.
• Speciation check: total arsenic in Laminaria, urinary DMA/MA/DMAE, arsenosugars, and the 254 Da compound are kept distinct. The source does not report seaweed iAs, so the frontmatter uses metals: [tAs] only.
• Brand firewall: the Chinese supermarket source is retained only as market/geographic context; no store or brand name is reported.
• Missing-slug check: no missing product or ingredient slug blockers. Exact Laminaria ingestion and human-biological matrices remain in source text while frontmatter routes the food matrix broadly to seaweed/kelp foods.

Page history

The five most recent substantive edits to this page. The full version history lives in git; when DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.