Detailed Reference Information

The mud-shrimp, Austinogebia edulis (Ngoc-Ho & Chan, 1992) is mainly found on the western Taiwan coast and in northern Vietnam.Since this species is a locally traditional sea food in central western Taiwan, trace metals in muscle, hepatopancreas, and the exoskeleton of A.edulis as well as in its habitat sediment were analysed, in order to study whether there would be any relationship between the metal content in A.edulis and that of its habitat sediment.Tissue samples were completely digested in aqua regia on a hot plate prior to measurement.Sediment samples were measured by sequentially leaching into five fractions (Tessier et al., 1979).The total concentrations of trace metals in A.edulis followed the sequence: Fe > Mn > Cu > Zn > Ni > Pb > Cr > Co > Cd.Concentrations of Fe, Mn, and Pb were primarily found in the exoskeleton; Cu and Cd were mainly present in the hepatopancreas; the concentrations of Ni and Zn were nearly equal in all three tissues studied.The contents of Cu, Fe, Mn, and Ni in the tissues of A.edulis are generally higher than in other species of shrimps reported in the literature.With the exception of Cu and Mn, more than 60% of the metals studied were present in the residual fraction.In contrast, Cu and Mn were dominant in the nonresidual fraction, which indicates that the Cu and Mn concentrations in hepatopancreas and muscle of A.edulis were relatively higher than those of the other metals.