Comparison of microwave, dry and wet digestion procedures for the determination of trace metal contents in spice samples produced in Turkey
Mustafa Soylak, Mustafa Tüzen, İbrahim Narin, Hayati Sarı
Abstract
The concentrations of trace metals (Pb, Cd, Cr, Ni, Fe, Cu, Mn and Zn) in spice samples from Turkey were determined because similar studies have not been published. The experiments were carried out using atomic absorption spectrometry after dry ashing, wet ashing and microwave digestion methods. The study of sample preparation procedures showed that the microwave method was the best. The proposed method showed satisfactory recovery, detection limits and standard deviation for trace metal determination in spice samples. The concentrations of Pb, Cd, Cr, Ni, Fe, Cu, Mn and Zn in the samples were in the range of 0.47-1.89, 0.10-0.93, 0.67-7.15, 0.65-8.69, 88.9-376.3, 4.1-28.7, 11.9-211.3 and 7.84-47.6 μg/g, respectively. Correlations between metal concentrations were evaluated.