Simultaneous multielement determination in vegetable foodstuffs and their respective cell fractions by total-reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF)

Abstract

Total-reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF) was employed in the multielement determination made on samples of lamb's lettuce and cauliflower as well as in the analysis of their soluble and insoluble cell fractions. All samples were digested with HNO3 and the elements were quantitatively determined with Ga as internal standard. For cell fractionation, the freeze-dried vegetables were mortared in the presence of fine-grain quartz and extracted with a buffer solution; the resulting suspension was then separated by ultracentrifugation into cytosol and pellet components. K, Ca, Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, Rb and Sr were the elements of which the total content and distribution between cytosol and pellet were determined. As a result of the cellular digestion and extraction procedures employed, greater than or equal to 50% of the total metal contents of Zn, Cu, K and Rb could be reduced to the cytosol phase in both vegetables, however, Sr, Fe, Ca and Mn were mainly bound to the insoluble pellet components which, in the case of cauliflower, contained up to 100% of the total Sr content. As a multielement method, TXRF proved to be an excellent analytical tool in these investigations, since it requires only minute samples with simple preparation and involves a large dynamic measuring scale.