Total Nitrogen Analysis of Soil and Plant Tissues

Abstract

Progress of the Dumas and Kjeldahl procedures over the past century is reviewed. Many recent papers claim that various modifications of the standard Kjeldahl method enhance accuracy, precision, or speed, and reduce cost of analysis. Furthermore, several authors advocate use of Pyrex tubes heated in an aluminum block for digestion instead of traditional Kjeldahl flasks. A review of current semimicro-Kjeldahl methodology suggests that proceeding under the following conditions gives satisfactory results: sample size, 50–200 mg for plant material, 100–500 mg for soil; digestion acid, concentrated H2SO4; sample size ratio (mL/g) of 16:1 for soils and 22:1 for plant materials; digestion salt, minimum 0.33 g K2SO4 added/mL H2SO4; catalysts, add CuSO4 5H2O at rate of 10% (w/w) of K2SO4 added, HgO at 5% (w/w) of K2SO4, or add Se to K2SO4–CuSO4 5H2O mixtures at rate of 1% (w/w) K2SO4; digestion time, 1 and 3 h past clearing for plant materials and soils, respectively; pretreatments, use salicylic acid or reduced iron to recover nitrate from sample. Use of Pyrex tubes heated in an aluminum block appears suitable for digestions. Our results indicate that the 2 commercial tube digestion systems tested produce satisfactory recovery of total N from soils and plant materials. Ammonium in Kjeldahl digests may be quantitatively determined by distillationtitration, ammonia electrode, or colorimetric techniques.