Arsenic-Related Health Risk Assessment of Realgar-Containing NiuHuangJieDu Tablets in Healthy Volunteers Po Administration

Realgar, an arsenic-containing traditional Chinese medicine of As2S2, has significant therapeutic effects for hundreds of years. NiuHuangJieDu tablets (NHJDT) is one of the most commonly prescribed realgar-containing preparations for the treatment of sore throat, swelling, and aching of gums. However, realgar-containing TCMs raise great safety concerns due to the adverse effects reported by arsenic poisoning. In this study, the arsenic-related health risk assessment of NHJDT was conducted in healthy volunteers after single and multiple doses oral administration. Blood, plasma, and urine samples were collected after dosing at predetermined time points or periods. Simple, rapid, and sensitive methods were established for the quantification of total arsenic and arsenic speciation in biological samples. The total arsenic and arsenic speciation were determined by hydride generation-atomic fluorescence spectrometry (HG-AFS) and high-performance liquid chromatography–hydride generation–atomic fluorescence spectrometry (HPLC-HG-AFS), respectively. No significant fluctuation of total arsenic was observed in human blood, and no traces of arsenic speciation were found in human plasma. Dimethylarsenic acid was detected as the predominated arsenic species in human urine after dosing. Therapeutic dose administration of NHJDT was relatively safe in single dose for the limited blood arsenic exposure, but long-term medication may still pose health risks due to the accumulation of arsenics in blood and its extremely slow excretion rate. Therefore, arsenic exposure should be carefully monitored during realgar-containing TCM medication, especially for long-term regimen. The results obtained in this study will provide scientific references for the clinical application of realgar and its-containing TCMs.

Difluoroboron Curcumin Complex: A Study on Determination of Acidity Constants and Quantitative Analysis of Arsenic(III)

In this study, the complex of difluoroboron, curcumin (BF2-Cur), has been synthesized and characterized via the combination of Boron trifluoride-diethyl etherate ((C2H5)2OBF3) and curcumin. However, the new dissociation constants, pKa1 and pKa2 of the BF2-Cur complex, have been indicted by the values of 8.44 ± 0.16 and 9.76 ± 0.13, respectively. On the other hand, the reagent was also used to determine As(III) in aqueous solutions by UV–Vis spectrophotometry. As a result, the method was validated for accuracy, precision, linearity, and sensitivity, and the linear range was from 1.0 to 25.0 µmol/L, with the linear regression, A = 0.0027 C + 0.0106, correlation coefficient R2 = 0.9969. Besides, the limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were determined as 0.83 and 2.10 µmol/L, respectively. Thus, the developed method is successfully used for quantitative analysis of total arsenic in wastewater by reducing As(V) to As(III), then determining As(III) with high accuracy results.

VALIDATION OF AN ANALYTICAL METHOD FOR THE DETERMINATION OF INORGANIC AND ORGANIC ARSENIC IN FISH SAUCE BY HYDRIDE GENERATION ATOMIC ABSORPTION SPECTROSCOPY

The validation of an analytical method was carried out for the determination of arsenic components in fish sauce by HG-AAS. The total arsenic content (tAs) was analyzed after digesting the sample by dry and wet combined digestion method in a Teflon flask at 450 °C and then reducing As (V) to As (III) with a mixture of reducing agents KI/ascorbic acid. For inorganic arsenic content (iAs), the sample was hydrolyzed with HCl solution for 14 hours, converted As (V) to As (III), then reacted with hydrazine 1.5%. Extracted in CHCl3 and re-extracted in HNO3. The organic arsenic content (oAs) was calculated by the difference tAs and iAs. Determined the linear concentration range 2 - 30 μg/L and the standard curve was y = 0.0128x + 0.0007 with R² = 0.9996 at the concentration range 2 - 20 μg/L. LODs, LOQs for total and inorganic arsenic contents were found and all they were 0.015 mg/L and 0.05 mg/L, respectively. For total arsenic, the recovery efficiencies on the organic arsenic standard and inorganic arsenic standard all ranged from 81 to 109%;...

Clinimetallomics: Arsenic Speciation in Urine from Patients With Arsenism by HPLC-ICP-MS

Clinimetallomics is proposed as a branch of metallomics that focuses on the study of the metallome in clinical samples of urine, blood, and tissues. As the clinical diagnosis of arsenic poisoning is mainly based on the concentration of total arsenic in urine, the toxicity of arsenic varies greatly in different speciation. Analysis of arsenic speciation with excessive total arsenic in urine can provide a basis for precise treatment. It can also be used to understand the fate of arsenic in the body of patients with arsenic poisoning after treatment with sodium dimercaptopropane sulfonate. In this study, a HPLC-ICP-MS method was established for the determination of arsenic species in urine samples from patients diagnosed with arsenism. Use the established method to detect urine samples, which can be directly assayed after simple sample dilution with 20 mmol/L EDTA-2Na. With the concentration of arsenic speciation in the range of 1.0~100.0 ng/mL, the linear correlation coefficient was higher than 0.99996. The recoveries were between 92.4% and 109.0%. The precision of the concentration and retention time (n = 3) were less than 3.0% and 0.3%, respectively, and the detection limit was between 1.42 ng/mL and 1.86 ng/mL. This method can be applied to arsenic speciation in the urine of healthy people, in patients treated for arsenic poisoning, and in patients diagnosed with arsenism.