THE STUDY OF TRACE ELEMENTS IN SOME TYPES OF DRINKING TEA BY DIFFERENT ANALYTICAL METHODS

摘要

In Egypt, drinking tea is very common and popular. The measurements of toxic elements and heavy metals become essential for human biosystems. Trace elements are of great importance in physiological processes of all living organisms. Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) as well as flame atomic absoiption spectrometry (FAAS) have been applied to determine the concentrations of the trace elements of interest. Three types of lea leaves from different sources (Ceylon, Kenya and India) in addition to five different fabricated tea samples collected from Egyptian local market have been investigated. The concentrations of fifteen elements ( Ce, Mn, Co, Fe, Cu, Zn, Ni, Rb, Ru, Pb, Cs, La, Ce, Eu and Hf), whose ranges were from 0.05 to 1283.10 ppm, were determined. The data obtained prove that there is a broad agreement between both techniques used. The elements' concentrations in all local samples investigated are in the same range as the foreign tea samples. The comparison of our results with those reported in other studies testifies to the same range of the concentrations measured as well.