ABSTRACT
The consumption of fish in food may contain mercury, a harmful element and dangerous chemical detrimental to human health. The purpose of this study was to determine the mercury level in the hair of pregnant women with different fish intakes in their diets. The concentration of total mercury in hair was determined using an atomic absorption spectrometer. In this study, 98 pregnant women were invited to participate (aged from 18 to 48 years). The mean content of mercury in the hair of pregnant women in Northwestern Russia was 0.428 mg/kg (ranging from 0.018 to 3.1 mg/kg). As a result, 22% of women had mercury values above 0.58 mg/kg, which is considered dangerous for the fetus. The hair mercury concentration in a village area was higher than that in a city area (i.e., 0.548 mg/kg and 0.326 mg/kg). Moreover, the maximum level of mercury was noted for a group of pregnant women who consumed more than 5 kg/month of fish and fish products. Furthermore, the consumption of freshwater fish in the diet leads to a higher mercury content in the hair of pregnant women than the consumption of marine fish.
ABSTRACT
The physico-chemical, textural and color parameters and fluorescence spectra of aromatic amino acids and nucleic acids (AAA + NA), tryptophan residues, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) and vitamin A were scanned on sturgeon samples kept at 4 °C up to 12 days. Using the principal component analysis (PCA), the riboflavin and NADH spectra allowed clear differentiation between sturgeon samples according to their storage time. The best result was obtained by applying the common components and specific weights analysis (CCSWA) to the riboflavin and NADH data tables since better differentiation was achieved between the 4 group sturgeon samples aged: 2 days; 5, 6 and 7 days; 8 and 9 days and 12 days. The proposed methodology demonstrates the ability of CCSWA to evaluate sturgeon freshness level according to their storage time.
