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Cannonball jellyfish (Stomolophus meleagris) from the Gulf of Mexico has been under investigation as a potential source to meet the market demand for jellyfish food in Asia. Traditionally, jellyfish are processed by curing fresh jellyfish with salt and alum, and then the cured jellyfish are desalted in water before consumption. Very little is known about the inorganic constituents of jellyfish. In this study fresh and desalted processed cannonball jellyfish were examined for 22 elements using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. The desalted processed tissues had significantly higher Al concentrations (leg, 688 μg/g; umbrella, 271 μg/g) than fresh jellyfish (leg, 0.29 μg/g; umbrella,1.63 μg/g). Concentrations of macro elements, such as Ca, Mg, K, and Na, were high in fresh jellyfish and rather low in desalted processed tissue. The results should be useful in providing biological and nutritional information about fresh and processed jellyfish. Keywords: Jellyfish; ICP; mineral elements

A microwave digestion procedure, followed by Inductively Coupled Argon Plasma Spectroscopy, is described for the determination of boron (B) in human plasma. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) currently does not certify the concentration of B in any substance. The NIST citrus leaves 1572 (CL) Standard Reference Material (SRM) and wheat flour 1567a (WF) were chosen to determine the efficacy of digestion. CL and WF values compare favorably to those obtained from an open-vessel, wet digestion followed by ICP, and by neutron activation and mass spectrometric measurements. Plasma samples were oxidized by doubled-distilled ultrapure HNO3 in 120 mL PFA Teflon vessels. An MDS-81D microwave digestion procedure allows for rapid and relatively precise determination of B in human plasma, while limiting handling hazards and sources of contamination.

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