A preliminary study of background concentrations of elements in plants of the Xizang Plateau

A total of 29 major and trace elements have been determined in 43 plant samples collected from the Xizang (Tibet) Plateau using INAA at a SLOWPOKE mini-reactor in order to study elemental background concentration values in Xizang plants. In this paper are reported elemental concentrations of different parts of the plants compared to average values of plants worldwide. The preliminary results suggest that nutritional, plant elements in this region are quite low indicative of a state of malnutrition, while the contents of Al, Ti, Cr and Ba are comparatively high. These findings indicate that the concentrations of most elements in the plants are mainly affected by local soil geochemical characteristics. Some variation in elemental distribution within the plants was also evident: in general, higher concentrations were found in stems compared to roots, and, differences for nutritional elements among the plant species were much greater than found for other elements.     

Trace element analysis of uranium of soil and plant samples using fission track registration technique

The fission track registration technique using Melinex-0 as the detector has been applied to estimate uranium concentration in soil and plant samples collected from different parts of this region of India. The soil samples were powdered and plant samples were ashed to form pellets which were then irradiated with thermal neutrons. Uranium was found to vary from 0.023 to 0.430 ppm in soil samples and 0.026 to 0.216 ppm in plant (Mesophyte group) samples. Fission track technique provides simple, inexpensive, reliable and sensitive method and has high potentiality for uranium analyses in plants and agricultural crops and getting information about underlying ore and mineral deposits.     

Evaluation of soil to tea plant elemental correlation using instrumental neutron activation analysis

Instrumental neutron activation analysis using relative and k ₀-based internal monostandard methods were employed for determination of concentrations of 12 elements in soil and tea plants collected from three different tea producing regions in India namely Assam, Darjeeling and Kangra. A total of 17 tea leaf samples along with corresponding soil samples were analyzed for elemental content. The obtained concentration data was used for the soil–plant elemental correlation studies. Positive correlation was observed between elemental concentrations of tea plants and the associated soil with Pearson correlation coefficient values in the range 0.6–0.9 for ten elements. Variations in transfer factor values were also observed according to the geo-chemical variation.     

Clerodendrum viscosum: traditional uses,pharmacological activities and phytochemical constituents

Clerodendrum viscosum is widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of the world particularly in India. Extracts from different parts of the plant have been used elaborately in Ayurveda and Unani for treating different illness. Many phytochemicals were isolated from various parts of the plant, but their pharmacological potentials have not been largely explored. This review focuses on all these aspects of the plant keeping in view the cultural and traditional acceptability of its medicinal use. Its toxicological data are limited and require investigation to address for safety issues prior to recommendating for pharmaceutical use.     

Application of instrumental neutron activation analysis to plant medicines in Ghana: A review

Some essential elements in eleven plant medicines used at the Center for Scientific Research into Plant Medicine (CSRPM), Mampong-Akwapim, Ghana, for the management and cure of various diseases were determined by instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA), using thermal neutrons at a flux of 5^.10¹¹ n^.s^-1.cm^-2. The plant medicines were: Sirappac powder-E, Tina-A powder, Blighia powder, Aphrodisiac powder, Ninga powder and Lippia tea. The others are Olax powder, Ritchiea powder, Momordica powder, Kenken and Fefe powder. Concentrations of seventeen elements namely Al, Br, Ca, Cl, Co, Cu, Cr, K, Mn, Mg, Na, Rb, Sb, Sc, Ta, V, and Zn have been determined by short, medium and long irradiation times. Of these elements Co, Sb, and Sc are found to be present at the trace level, Br, Cu, Cr, Mn, Rb, Ta, V and Zn at the minor level, while Al, Ca, Cl, K, Mg and Na were generally at major level. The differences in the concentration of the elements are attributed mainly to soil composition and climate in which the plants grow. Standard reference material NIST SRM-1571 (Orchard Leaf) was analyzed simultaneously with the samples. The precision and accuracy of the method were evaluated using real samples and the standard reference material. It was found that the elemental concentrations measured in the NIST SRM-1571 were within ±10% of the reported values. The importance of these elements as related to human health and nutrition has been discussed.     

Elemental composition of herbal medicines sold over-the-counter in São Paulo city,Brazil

In Brazil, the use of herbal medicines is very popular due to its immense flora, cultural aspects and to the popular belief that herbs, which are of natural origin, are safe and without undesirable side effects. Aside from that public interest in natural therapies, the use of herbal medicines has increased expressively due to the high cost of synthetic medicines. In this study, elemental compositions of herbal medicines from the species Ginseng, Ginkgo biloba, Centella asiatica, Mulberry and Aloe vera supplied by different suppliers were evaluated by neutron activation analysis. The concentrations of As, Ba, Br, Ca, Cl, Co, Cr, Cs, Fe, Hf, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Rb, Sb, Sc, Th, Zn and some lanthanides were determined in these samples. Comparisons made between the results indicated differences in their elemental contents depending on the plant species, origins of the samples and the age of the leaves. The results also showed that the herbal medicines contain elements such as Ca, Co, K, Fe, Mg and Zn known as essential to humans and for treatment and prevention of diseases. Toxic elements such as Hg, Cd and Cu were not detected. Elements As and Sb were detected in some samples but at very low concentrations at the μg kg⁻¹ levels. Herbal medicine results were also compared to literature values. Biological certified reference material was analyzed for quality control of the analytical results.     

Characterization and quantification of persistent organic pollutants in fly ash from coal fueled thermal power stations in India

The burning of pulverized coal to produce energy for generation of electricity in thermal power plants results in huge quantity of coal ash of varying properties. In India the coal based thermal power plants have been the major source of power generation in the past and would continue for decades to come. Because of the increase in electricity production, the amount of ash produced will increase proportionally. Very few studies on characterization of organic constituents in fly ash from Indian thermal power plants have been reported in the literature. In the present study, the fly ashes generated from five thermal power stations from different parts of India were investigated regarding the elaboration of distribution pattern of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as PAHs and PCBs in them. The PAHs in the fly ash samples were identified and quantified using high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC-UV) whereas the estimation of PCB congeners was carried out using gas chromatography (GC-ECD). Lower molecular weight (MW) PAHs, were found to be predominant in fly ash samples. The concentration of Benzo(a)Pyrene which is the most potent carcinogenic PAH, varied between 0.82 ng/g and 18.14 ng/g with a mean concentration of 9.02 ng/g. Among the PCB congeners, CB-77 is having higher toxicity value, the concentrations of which in the fly ash samples were in the range of 4.58 ng/g to 104.98 ng/g with a mean value of 62.53 ng/g.     

Asparagus racemosus: a review on its phytochemical and therapeutic potential

Asparagus racemosus (Willd.) is a widely found medicinal plant in tropical and subtropical parts of India. The therapeutic applications of this plant have been reported in Indian and British Pharmacopoeias and in traditional system of medicine, such as Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha. The crude, semi-purified and purified extracts obtained from different parts of this plant have been useful in therapeutic applications. Numerous bioactive phytochemicals mostly saponins and flavonoids have been isolated and identified from this plant which are responsible alone or in combination for various pharmacological activities. This review aims to give a comprehensive overview of traditional applications, current knowledge on the phytochemistry, pharmacology and overuse of A. racemosus.     

Estimation of trace elements in some anti-epileptic medicinal plants by PIXE

Trace elemental analysis was carried out in various parts of 10 anti-epileptic medicinal plants using PIXE technique. A 3?MeV proton beam was used to excite the samples and spectra were recorded using a Si(Li) detector. Data analysis was done using Gupix Software. The elements Cl, K, Ca, Ti, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Br and Sr were identified and their concentrations estimated. The presence of some of these trace elements is correlated with the anti-epileptic curative property of these plants.     

Analysis of volatile components of Lavandula luisieri L. by direct thermal desorption-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Volatile components of wild samples of Lavandula luisieri collected in Central and Southern Spain have been analyzed by direct thermal desorption coupled to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (DTD-GC-MS). This method requires only 10-20 mg of dry sample, allowing to obtain qualitative and quantitative results from different plant parts such as flowers and leaves. Average volatile yield calculated from 51 individual plants was higher for leaves (9.7mg g(-1)) than for flowers (2.9mg g(-1)). Samples presented a high variation in their yield and composition. Major components were camphor and 1,8-cineole (up to 80.9 and 76.7% in leaves; 87.8 and 85.2% in flowers, respectively); however, these compounds were not detected in several samples. Other major component (up to 60% in flowers and leaves) was 2,3,5,5-tetramethyl-4-methylene-2-cyclopenten-1-one. Multivariate analysis was applied to quantitative data from nine selected compounds in order to show the presence of several patterns in plant composition which were only partially related to the site of collection.     

Secondary metabolites for antiulcer activity

Peptic ulcers are open sores or erosions in the lining of either the duodenum (duodenal ulcers) or the stomach (gastric ulcers). Peptic ulcer, which is mainly caused by bacterial attack or excess of acid secretion, can be cured effectively by these isolated plant compounds. In this present scenario, demand for herbal medicines are increasing due to easy availability in surrounding place at low cost. This review article is all about such isolated plant compounds such as alkaloids, flavonoids and terpenoids. Various plants have been used as folk medicine by the people of rural area, which shows significant effect against peptic ulcer. Further study should be conducted upon these herbal plants because there is possibility for minimising the adverse effect caused by the present antiulcer drugs.     

Study of uranium contamination of ground water in Punjab state in India using X-ray fluorescence technique

The elemental concentration of uranium in the samples collected from the ground water and the canal water in the Bathinda district of Punjab state, India, have been investigated using X-ray fluorescence technique. The residues obtained after drying the water samples were analysed using the energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometer consisting of Mo-anode X-ray tube equipped with selective absorbers as an excitation source and an Si(Li) detector. The uranium concentration values in significant fraction of the shallow ground water samples from the hand pumps is found to be above the permissible level of 15?ppb recommended by World Health Organisation for the drinking water, and its values in the canal water samples are below 5?ppb. To investigate the flyash from the coal-fired thermal power plants as a possible source of ground water contamination, the water samples collected from the surroundings of the power plants and the flyash samples were also analyzed. The results rule out flyash as a source of uranium contamination. Agrochemical processes occurring in the calcareous soils in the region are the favoured potential source of uranium contamination of the ground water.     

Determination and assessment of the contents of essential and potentially toxic elements in Ayurvedic medicine formulations by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry

Traditional Ayurvedic remedies are easily available nowadays not only in India, their country of origin, but also in Western countries. Some of these products contain high concentrations of potentially toxic elements as main or secondary ingredients, in addition to elements essential for human health; for these reasons, it is interesting to determine their elemental composition. In this study we assessed the concentrations of fifteen elements (Al, As, Ca, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Pb, Si and Zn) in five products of the Parpati family, a group of Ayurvedic medicines containing high concentrations of mercury, manufactured in various places in India. Concentrations were determined by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) or (for Pb and Cd) by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GF-AAS) after sample mineralization. We compared the calculated daily intake of each element with reference values, considering maximum tolerable intake levels or recommended nutrient amounts. The experimental results were treated with chemometric pattern recognition techniques. We found differences in the composition of products of the same denomination manufactured by different companies and strong correlations among groups of variables. As expected, the daily intake of mercury upon consumption of Parpati medicines largely exceeded the tolerable intake level of this element.     

Determination of elemental concentrations in environmental plant samples by instrumental neutron activation analysis

The intake of leafy vegetables in daily diet is very important to meet our nutritional needs. Vegetables provide the essential elements which are necessary and recommended for human growth. However, due to rapid industrialization and urbanization our environment becomes polluted and this affects the normal growth of agricultural products and composition of environmental species. The elemental concentrations present in the environmental samples are good indicators to assess the toxicological levels due to pollution affects. In the present work we have analysed several vegetable plant samples by instrumental neutron activation analysis to determine the elemental concentrations at major, minor and trace levels. The leafy vegetables like spinach, red leafy veagetable, pui, gourd leaf, lettuce and katoua were chosen as these are extensively consumed by local peple in eastern part of India. We have determined 15 elements in the above mentioned vegetable samples and some of these are essential elements and some are toxic elements. It was found that Na and K were present as major elements, Fe and Zn as minor elements and As, Ce, Cr, Co, La, Mo, Rb, Sc, Sm, Sr as trace elements. The concentration level of Cr was found to be higher than that of recommended value certified by WHO and National environment quality control for human consumption. The validation of our analytical results have been performed by the Z-score tests through the determination of concentrations of the elements of interest in certified reference materials.     

Multielemental analysis of soil samples by fast-neutron activation

Neutron activation analysis (NAA) have been used for the determination of major, minor, and trace elements in 20 soil samples from 5 crop fields of the Crop Research Centre, Pantnagar, India. Fast neutron activation analysis (FNAA) and cyclic neutron activation analysis (CNAA) have been used to determine the concentrations of various elements. The results for minor and trace elements are compared with the level of abundances of world soils. The present study provides the basic data of elemental concentrations in soil samples of 5 major crop fields located in one of the leading agricultural universities of India for future measurements with the objectives of efficient use of fertilizers and pesticides in accordance with the high yield.     

Elemental fingerprint analysis of barley (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Hordeum vulgare</Emphasis>) using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry,isotope-ratio mass spectrometry,and multivariate statistics

Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP–MS) and isotope-ratio mass spectrometry (IR-MS) have been used to examine the multi-elemental composition and ¹⁵N/¹⁴N and ¹³C/¹²C isotope ratios of three spring barley (Hordeum vulgare) genotypes (Orthega, Barke, and Bartok) grown in three typical Danish agricultural soils (North Jutland, West Jutland, and East Zealand) differing in soil fertility. The aim of the study was to examine whether it was possible to generate a unique elemental fingerprint of individual barley genotypes irrespective of the elemental imprint plants had received from soils differing in fertility and agricultural practice. Multivariate statistics were used to analyze the elemental fingerprints of the barley genotypes at different times during a full growing season from early tillering to full maturity of the barley grains. Initially, 36 elements were analyzed in the plant samples but this number was subsequently reduced to 15 elements: B, Ba, C, Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, N, Na, P, S, Sr, and Zn. These elements exceeded the limit of detection (LOD) for all genotypes, soil types, and plant growth stages and for these elements the accuracy was better than 90% compared with apple leaf certified reference material (CRM). Principal component analysis (PCA) separated multi-elemental data in accordance with soil type when plants of similar physiological age were compared, whereas this separation disappeared if plants of all ages were compared simultaneously. Isotope ratios (¹⁵N) of plants also proved to be a highly accurate property for classification of samples according to soil type. In contrast, the differences in ¹³C were too small to enable such classification. The differences in ¹⁵N among soils were so pronounced that separation of samples according to the physiological age of plants became redundant. However, ¹⁵N and the multi-elemental analysis revealed no differences between the three barley genotypes, indicating that the influence of soil chemistry and possibly also climate and agricultural practice was too large to allow an unique elemental fingerprint for the genotypes. This finding was substantiated by analyzing the multi-elemental composition of grain from two additional genotypes (Otira and Barthos) grown at the north and east locations, respectively. PCA showed not only that the elemental fingerprints of these two genotypes were similar to those of the others, but also that the soil in which the plant had been growing could be accurately predicted on the basis of the PCA scores from the genotypes Orthega, Barke, and Bartok. Similar conclusions could be drawn using ¹⁵N data.     

Ligand fishing with functionalized magnetic nanoparticles coupled with mass spectrometry for herbal medicine analysis

The chemical composition of herbal medicines is very complex, and their therapeutic effects are determined by multi-components with sophisticated synergistic and/or suppressive actions. Therefore, quality control of herbal medicines has been a formidable challenge. In this work, we describe a fast analytical method that can be used for quality assessment of herbal medicines. The method is based on ligand fishing using human-serum-albumin-functionalized magnetic nanoparticles (HSA-MNPs) and mass spectrometry. To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method, eight samples of Dioscorea panthaica were analyzed. The sampled plants were of both wild and cultivated origins. They grew at different geographical locations and were harvested at different times. The ligands bound to HSA-MNPs were isolated from the plant extracts and detected by using direct infusion electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (DI–ESI–MS). Chemical identity has been confirmed for five of the ligands isolated. From more than 15 peaks in the ESI–MS spectrum, 11 common peaks were selected for calculating the correlation coefficient and cosine ratio. The values of correlation coefficient and cosine ratio were >0.9824 and >0.9988, respectively, for all the samples tested. The results indicated a high level of similarity among the eight D. panthaica samples. Compared with chromatographic fingerprint analysis, the proposed HSA-MNP-based DI–ESI–MS/MS approach was not only fast and easy to carry out but also biological-activity-oriented, promising a more effective data interpretation and thus reliable assessment conclusions.     

Cluster analysis of the elemental composition of five austrian peats

The elemental composition of peat depends on the plant residues from which the peat was formed. The concentrations of 45 elements were determined for five peat samples by plasma emission spectrometry. Literature data on the composition of three bogs was added. The elemental abundances of six rock or soil categories, the elemental compositions of several peat-forming plants, and the results of the elemental analyses of bog samples, were examined by the SIMCA method. A clear difference was found between fens and raised bogs. Factor analysis of the elemental compositions shows that the concentrations of most of the elements reflect their natural abundance in the surrounding region. Some concentrations are influenced by anthropogenic pollution, e.g. lead, and by plant metabolism. The cluster analysis together with the training sets shows the degree of the deposition of mineral material from adjacent rivers and the type of plant growth which formed the peat.     

Certification of cabbage and carnation samples and their use in an international proficiency study

Summary The preparation of carnation straw (Dianthus) and white cabbage (Brassica oleracea) as reference plant materials for chemical analysis and the testing of their homogeneity is described. The elemental content has been determined and evaluated by the Comité Inter-Instituts (CII) using different analytical procedures. The CII is an organisation grouping about 30 selected European laboratories which prepares, on a regular basis, several, very different reference plant materials. At the moment about 24 different plant samples are in stock. Recommended values for the two samples used in this study, are given for ash content, N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Na, Al, Fe and Mn. For 3 years these materials have been used as home references in the International Plant-analysis Exchange (IPE), a continuous proficiency testing scheme, organized by the Wageningen Agricultural University (The Netherlands), in which 230 laboratories worldwide are participating. The values found by the IPE laboratories are compared with the values recommended by CII and are mostly in good agreement with each other.     

Analysis of phenolic compounds in Epimedium plants using liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

A new method based on HPLC coupled with electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS/MS) has been established for the analysis of phenolic compounds in Epimedium plants. The characteristic fragmentation pathways of 29 phenolic compounds were studied, and 126 compounds were identified or tentatively characterized based on their mass spectra from fourteen samples including the aerial samples and the underground parts of the seven species. Furthermore, the differences in phenolic compound profiles between different Epimedium plants and two parts of the seven species were reported for the first time. Due to their significant chemical differences, these Epimedium species should be used separately in clinical practice.