Stable Isotope Ratios Combined with Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and Scanning Electron Microscope Analysis to Identify the Dried Shark Fins

摘要

The authenticity of dried shark fins was identified using stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic compositions, chemical structure, and morphology characterization by means of element analyzer-isotope ratio mass spectrometry (EA-IRMS), attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) analysis, and scanning electron microscope (SEM) characterization of samples. The results indicated that real dried shark fins, fake dried shark fins, and artificial dried shark fins could be easily distinguished from each other. delta C-13 values of real dried shark fins, fake dried shark fins, and artificial dried shark fins were -14.231 +/- 1.204aEuro degrees, -17.247 +/- 0.621aEuro degrees, and -14.561 +/- 1.016aEuro degrees, respectively, and highly significant (P 0.01) within real dried shark fins and fake dried shark fins. On the other hand, delta N-15 values of artificial dried shark fins (6.860 +/- 0.519aEuro degrees) and real dried shark fins (13.501 +/- 2.421aEuro degrees) presented significant differences (P 0.01). Considering the obvious differences of these samples with ATR-FTIR and SEM analysis, the combination of IRMS with ATR-FTIR and SEM technique has the advantage over traditional identification method to be relatively good in accuracy and applicability. Thus, these techniques could potentially be useful for dried shark fin identification.