In this study, the method for determining ten elements (including K, Na, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, Pb, and Cd) was designed. With this method, we evaluated 15 honey samples, including three kinds of honey collected from 11 different geographic sites in Henan province of China, with inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). The obtained detecting data were analysed with principal component analysis, correlation analysis, and cluster analysis techniques. The results showed that the recovery is in the range of 93.0−107.0 %, and the relative standard deviations (RSDs) were all below 5.89 %, which indicates that the current analytical method is dependable for the detection of metallic elements in honey. ; flow rate of cooling was 1.5 l min ; sample flow rate was 1.5 ml min −1 .
Keywords
ICP-AES, honey, metallic elements, principal component analysis, cluster analysis
Sample preparationOne gram of each honey sample was dissolved in 8 ml concentrated nitric acid and 2 ml hydrogen peroxide in a sealed polytetrafluoroethylene digestion tank. The digestion was conducted as shown in Table 2. After digestion, the system was cooled down to room temperature. The solution from the digestion tank was transferred to a beaker (100 ml), and then heated to remove the acid in the airing chamber. After cooling, the solution was put in a colorimetric tube (10 ml), and diluted with 2 % nitric acid. The blank reagents were prepared according to this procedure for ICP-AES.
Data processingThe SPSS 22.0 were used for principal component analysis, correlation analysis, and cluster analysis.3 Results and discussion 3.1 Effects of the wavelength of the spectral line for each mineral element and the regression analysesThe ICP-AES has the automatic background sync function for correction. It is important to choose the spectral line with low interference, high sensitivity and low background value for the determination of metallic elements in honey. The standard solution was measured using the ICP-AES, and the standard curves were obtained. Measurement was repeated in parallel 10 times. The detection limit was calculated by three times of the standard deviation. The wavelength (λ) of the spectral line, the standard curve, the correlation coefficient (r) and the detection limit (DL) are presented in Table 3. It was obvious that the correlation coefficients of different metallic elements were between 0.9995-0.9999, and the detection limits were between 0.00003-0.01310 mg l −1 , which was suitable for the quantity analysis of the ten kinds of metallic elements. In order to assess the accuracy of the method, the standard reference was analysed. The results were compared with the certified ones and the relative error was calculated. The Vitex flower honey from Linzhou city was selected as the standard reference. An amount of 1.0000 g of the standard reference was mixed with the standard solution for measurement. This process was repeated six times to reduce the error, and the mean value was used for the recovery. The r...