ABSTRACT
Arsenic lipids can be extracted with a mixture of chloroform/methanol (2:1 v/v) but a more rigorous
1 INTRODUCTION
Most marine organisms contain high concentrations of As present as a variety of species (Fig. 1). Arsenic is mainly present in seaweeds as arsenoribosides while arsenobetaine is the main arsenic species in animals (Maher et al. 2010). However, there are at least 40 minor arsenic species. Recently two new classes of arsenic species, the thio-arsenic species where the ‘O’ bonded to As is replaced by an ‘S” and arsenic lipids (arsenic hydrocarbons, arsenic fatty acids and arsenic phospholipids) have been discovered increasing the complexity of arsenic species that exist in marine organisms.
