Numerous methods have been described for extracting arsenic from all kinds of samples ranging from environmental to nutritional, botanical, biological, and others.
However, as the authors emphasise, the method described in their paper is the first dedicated specifically to the extraction of arsenic species from dietary supplements for small children and pregnant women. In a nutshell, the result of the study is that a solution of H3PO4 can be used to extract arsenic from the samples investigated without significantly affecting the stability of the arsenic species. The results of the analysis by IC-ICP-MS were validated using mass balance by comparing the sum of the extracted and and non-extracted arsenic with the total concentration of the element in the corresponding samples.
