Following our study of the mineral contents of some Southern Italian wines, this work reports on the detection of 12 elemental components. The elements were determined using ICP-AES, flame atomic emission or absorption spectroscopy. The values determined for Li, Na, Mg, K, Ca, Rb, Sr and Ba were within the usual ranges for wines (average values for these elements were: 0.010, 26.2; 94.4; 888; 94.0; 3.30, 0.82 and 0.11 mg/l respectively). All the wines contained low levels of As, the concentrations of which were always under 0.20 mg/l, the maximum level permitted by E.E.C. standards. The measuring of Co, Ag, and Sb led us to ascertain, in all the wines, concentrations lower than 0.01 mg/l for Co and Ag and below the instrumental detection level for Sb (0.06 mg/l). In a previous study wines from D.O.C. areas of Southern Italy were analysed by the technique of inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), for 14 minerals. This paper deals with further investigation of the mineral composition of the same wines for different metal constituents, analysed by ICP-AES, flame atomic emission, or atomic-absorption spectroscopy (two techniques). The first technique was applied to the detection of Co, As, Sr, Ag, Sb, and Ba. The alkaline metals Li, Na, K, and Rb were determined by flame atomic emission, a technique which possesses better detection limits for these elements. For Mg and Ca the atomic absorption methods were applied.
