Natural radioactivity in Brazilian bottled mineral waters and consequent doses

Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) has been applied tomultielement determination of five medicinal plants which are used to curevarious diseases in Ghana. These are: Sirappac powder-E, Tina-A powder, Aphrodisiacpowder, Blighia powder and Olax powder. Concentrations of fifteen elementsAl, Ba, Br, Ca, Cl, Co, K, Mn, Mg, Na, Rb, Sb, Sc, Se, Ta, V and Zn have beendetermined by short, medium, and long irradiation times with a thermal neutronflux of 5 . 10 11 n . cm –2. s –1 . Of these Co, Sb, and Sc arefound to be present at trace level, Br, Mn, Rb, Ta, V and Zn at the minorlevel and Al, Ca, Cl, K, Mg, and Na are generally at the major level. StandardReference Material NIST SRM-1571(Orchard Leaf) was analysed simultaneouslywith the samples. The precision and accuracy of the method was evaluated usingreal samples and the standard reference material. It was found out that theelemental concentrations measured in the NIST SRM-1571 are within ±10%of the reported values.