title: Influence of soil composition on the major, minor and trace metal content of Velebit biomedical plants.
abstract: The use of medical herbs for the treatment of many human diseases is increasing nowadays due to their mild features and low side effects. Not only for their healing properties, but also for their nutritive value supplementation of diet with various herbs is recommended. Thus also their analysis is of rising importance. While total elemental compositions are published for many common herbs, the origin of toxic as well as beneficial elements is not yet well investigated. Thus different indigenous medicinal plants, namely Croatian spruce (Picea abies), savory (Satureja montana L.), mountain yarrow (Achillea clavennae), showy calamint (Calamintha grandiflora), micromeria (Micromeria croatica), yellow gentian (Gentiana lutea) and fir (Abies alba) together with soil samples were collected in the National Park Northern Velebit. The macro- and trace elements content, after microwave digestion, was determined by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS). The study focuses on the one hand on essential elements and on the other hand on non-essential elements which are considered as toxic for humans, covering in total Al, As, B, Ba, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, Pb, Sr and Zn.
authors.affiliation: Division of Analytical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, BOKU - University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Muthgasse 18, 1190 Vienna, Austria. Electronic address: michaela.zeiner@boku.ac.at.
authors.forename: Michaela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zeiner
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universty of Zagreb, Horvatovac 102a, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia.
authors.forename: Iva
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Juranović Cindrić
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universty of Zagreb, Horvatovac 102a, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia.
authors.forename: Martina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Požgaj
authors.affiliation: Division of Analytical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, BOKU - University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Muthgasse 18, 1190 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Raimund
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pirkl
authors.affiliation: Velebit Botanic Garden, Northern Velebit National Park Public Institution, Krasno 96, 53274 Krasno, Croatia.
authors.forename: Tea
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Šilić
authors.affiliation: Division of Analytical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, BOKU - University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Muthgasse 18, 1190 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Gerhard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Stingeder
mesh_terms: D017523:Croatia; D006801:Humans; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods; D008670:Metals / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D008872:Microwaves; D010946:Plants, Medicinal / Q000737:chemistry*; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry*; D013054:Spectrophotometry, Atomic; D014131:Trace Elements / Q000302:isolation & purification*
chemical_list: D008670:Metals; D012987:Soil; D014131:Trace Elements
keywords: Medical plants; Metals; Soil composition; Uptake; Velebit