Assessment of selenium content in tropical fish species using hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometry

The present work aimed to investigate the chemical sides in hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometry (HG-AAS) (i.e., a simple, low-cost, and sensitive approach) for selenium (Se) analysis in fish samples, and to assess the Se content in different tropical fish species. The limits of detection and quantification were of 0.25 and 0.75 µg/L, respectively, which were comparable to other similar methods employing HG-AAS. Good linearity (R2 = 0.9999) was achieved within Se concentrations (0.50 to 10.0 µg/L). Favourable repeatability (RSDr = 1.9%) and reproducibility (RSDR = 3.5%) were obtained. DORM-4, a certified reference material, was used to evaluate the accuracy of the analytical method, and there was no statistically significant difference between the certified and measured values at the confidence level of 95%. For 24 collected samples of tropical fish species, the Se contents in marine fish were generally higher than those in freshwater fish (1,131.2 – 2,109.5 vs. 119.7 – 472.1 µg/kg) with high recoveries obtained from all spiked samples (95.1 to 99.1%).