Trace Elements in Medicine (Moscow)
2018, 19(4): 36-41
ORIGINAL PAPERS

MASS-SPECTROMETRIC METHOD OF DETERMINING TRACE ELEMENTS IN THE ABOVE-GROUND PART OF CENTAUREA CYANUS L.

M.A. Khanina¹, E.A. Podolina^1,2, A.P. Rodin¹, M.G. Lejnina¹

¹ State University of Humanities and Technology, Zelyonaya str. 22, Orekhovo-Zuyevo, 142611, Russia
² Electrostal Institute (branch of the Moscow Polytechnic University), Pervomajskaya str. 7, Elektrostal, 144000, Russia

DOI: 10.19112/2413-6174-2018-19-4-36-41 

ABSTRACT. There was analyzed the composition and the content of trace elements (Fe, Mn, Zn, Cr, Cu, Co, Ni, Pb, Cd) in the above-ground part of bluebottle Centaurea cyanus L., grown in the experimental areas of the "Laboratory for the cultivation of medicinal plants GGTU" (Orekhovo-Zuyevo, 2016). The qualitative and quantitative content of trace elements in the above-ground part of the bluebottle was carried out by mass spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma (ELAN-DRC device). Based on the experimental data obtained, it was found that the above-ground part of the bluebottle contains more than 20 trace elements, which can be divided into three groups: vital, conditionally vital and brain-elements. Comparative analysis showed that all organs of bluebottle contain significant amounts of vital elements, for example, leaves include 303 mg/g of iron, 36.1 mg/g of manganese and 26.8 mg/g of copper. The content of conditionally vital trace elements does not exceed the maximum permissible concentration for dietary supplements on a plant basis. Thus, the content of toxic heavy metals (cadmium and lead) is 0.46 and 0.29 µg/g, respectively. The highest content among all trace elements is observed for aluminum, which belongs to the so-called Bray elements, and corresponds to 330 µg/g. The proposed mass-spectrometric method for determination of trace elements in the above-ground part of bluebottle is characterized by high selectivity, low detection limits (10-3 µg/g) and expressiveness – the time of a single analysis taking into account the preparation of the sample for analysis is 45 min.

KEYWORDS: Centaurea cyanus L., morphological parts of a plant, elements, composition, quantitative content, mass spectroscopy with inductively coupled plasma.