Determination of Multiple Elemental Concentrations in Tea from China by Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry

Mingjun Huang^{1, 2}, Xinhe Yang^{1, 2,} , Zhonghua Liu^{1, 3}, Qingli Mao^{1, 2}, Caiqin Qin^{1, 2} and Bangyu Lv¹

¹School of Life Science and Technology, Hubei Engineering University, Xiaogan, Hubei 432000, P. R. China

²Hubei Provincial Research Center of Engineering Technology for Utilization of Botanical Functional Ingredients, Hubei Engineering University, Xiaogan, Hubei 432000, P. R. China

³Key Laboratory of Tea Science of Ministry of Education, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, Hunan 410128, P. R. China

Cite this paper:
Mingjun Huang, Xinhe Yang, Zhonghua Liu, Qingli Mao, Caiqin Qin and Bangyu Lv. Determination of Multiple Elemental Concentrations in Tea from China by Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry. Journal of Food and Nutrition Research. 2016; 4(7):471-477. doi: 10.12691/jfnr-4-7-9

Abstract

The main goals of this study were to determine the best preparation procedure (microwave digestion, infrared digestion, or dry ashing) to analyze 17 elements in ten tea samples from different manufacturers in China with inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. Elemental measurement accuracy was determined by comparison with certified green tea reference material (GBW10052). Our results showed that a simple, rapid, and reliable microwave digestion was the best procedure preceding spectrometric measurements, resulting in the highest mean content values of K, Ca, Mg, Fe, and Zn in the tea samples, and that Cd, Pb, and As were under permissible limits based on a national standard (NY695-2003). The elemental differences and correlation of samples, as well as the classification and differentiation between the tea samples, were analyzed statistically.

Keywords:
determination tea inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry multiple elemental concentrations China

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