title: Assessment of mineral elements and heavy metals in leaves of indigenous cypress of High Atlas Mountains.
abstract: An inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry was developed to determine 20 mineral elements and heavy metals in leaves of Cupressus atlantica Gaussen, a traditional Moroccan medicinal herb from five environmentally different sites in N'Fis valley (High Atlas Mountains). The results showed in the leaves that Ca, K, P, Mg, Na and Fe were the most abundant of the elements in all samples of the studied locality. The concentrations of trace metals from the leaves of this plant were in the order Ca>K > P > Mg>Na>Fe. The results of the mineral composition were analysed by hierarchical cluster and principal component analysis that established three statistically significant clusters.
authors.affiliation: a Laboratory of Applied Organic Chemistry, Team Analysis and Quality Control Department of Chemistry , Faculty of Sciences Semlalia, Cadi Ayyad University , P.O. Box: 2390 Bd. Prince Moulay Abdallah, 40100 Marrakech , Morocco.
authors.forename: M Y
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Arjouni
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Bennouna
authors.forename: M A El Alaoui
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: El Fels
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Romane
mesh_terms: D016000:Cluster Analysis; D029781:Cupressus / Q000737:chemistry*; D019216:Metals, Heavy / Q000032:analysis*; D009018:Morocco; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000737:chemistry*; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D014131:Trace Elements / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D019216:Metals, Heavy; D014131:Trace Elements
keywords: Cupressus atlantica; PCA; heavy metals; inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS); minerals