Elemental composition of edible nuts: fast optimization and validation procedure of an ICP-OES method.
BACKGROUND
An inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry method for the speedy simultaneous detection of 19 elements in edible nuts (walnuts: Juglans nigra; almonds: Prunus dulcis; hazelnuts: Corylus avellana; Brazil nuts: Bertholletia excelsa; cashews: Anacardium occidentalle; pistachios: Pistacia vera; and peanuts: Arachis hypogaea) available on the Serbian markets, was optimized and validated through the selection of instrumental parameters and analytical lines free from spectral interference and with the lowest matrix effects.


RESULTS
The analysed macro-elements were present in the following descending order: Na > Mg > Ca > K. Of all the trace elements, the tested samples showed the highest content of Fe. The micro-element Se was detected in all the samples of nuts. The toxic elements As, Cd and Pb were either not detected or the contents were below the limit of detection. One-way analysis of variance, Student's t-test, Tukey's HSD post hoc test and hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis were applied in the statistical analysis of the results.


CONCLUSION
Based on the detected content of analysed elements it can be concluded that nuts may be a good additional source of minerals as micronutrients.
['Tošić|Snežana B|SB|', 'Mitić|Snežana S|SS|', 'Velimirović|Dragan S|DS|http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1500-5640', 'Stojanović|Gordana S|GS|', 'Pavlović|Aleksandra N|AN|', 'Pecev-Marinković|Emilija T|ET|']
D027926:Anacardiaceae D010367:Arachis D031383:Bertholletia D004032:Diet D006801:Humans D029525:Juglandaceae D013058:Mass Spectrometry D008903:Minerals D009753:Nutritive Value D009754:Nuts D000068181:Prunus dulcis D012643:Selenium D014131:Trace Elements
elemental composition nuts ICP-OES statistics method optimization and validation