ABSTRACT

Organic compounds in sea water samples were separated by the hollow-fiber ultrafiltration and Sephadex G-15 gel filtration methods. Chemical species of organic selenium compounds in sea water were then determined using the fractional-determination method of organic compounds which was established by Starikova (1962). The application of this method for a separation and determination of seleno-amino acid was investigated by adding radioactive L-[⁷⁵Se] selenomethionine and/or ⁷⁵Se as a tracer. The recovery values of the L-[⁷⁵Se]selenomethionine tracer method were 93% in artificial sea water and 83% in Lake Biwa water. This fractional-separation method gave good results for the determination of seleno-amino acid in sea water samples. The concentration of seleno-amino acid in sea water samples taken from around the Bering Sea were determined as 4-20 pM.