An Immunochromatographic Assay for the Rapid and Qualitative Detection of Mercury in Rice

Abstract

Mercury is a major pollutant in food crops. In this study, we synthesized an anti-mercury monoclonal antibody (mAb; IC50 was 0.606 ng mL−1) with high sensitivity and specificity and different immunogens and coating antigens and developed an immuno-chromatographic assay (ICA) for the detection of mercury in rice. The ICA strip had a visible detection limit of 20 ng g−1 and a cut-off value of 500 ng g−1 in rice. The performance of the ICA strip was consistent with that of ICP-MS and ic-ELISA. The recoveries of mercury in rice ranged from 94.5% to 113.7% with ic-ELISA and from 93.6% to 116.45% with ICP-MS. Qualitative analysis by ICA can be obtained with the naked eye. The ICA strip is an effective and practical method for the rapid and high-throughput determination of mercury in rice.