“…Residues were then washed with 10 ml de-ionized water (Milli-Q), shaken for 15 min, and centrifuged for 20 min at 4000 rpm, the supernatant being discarded. The sequential extraction procedure was carried out with no interruption once started (Ajay and van Loon, 1989). Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS, Agilent 7500), calibrated with external standard solutions, was applied for the determination of Ba, Cd, Co, Cu, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Sc, Sr, U and Zn.…”