Metal contents and chemometric evaluation of some medicinal plant species growing in different soil structures

Abstract

Properties of the soil, state of the particules, class of the soil and air, water and the chemicals (calcium cations, humus, colloidal iron, aluminum, nitrogen, various polysaccharides etc.) that soil contains are the most important factors on formation and development of the plants. Trace elements play an important role in the active chemical formation in medicinal plants and are responsible for the toxicity of medicinal plants. In this study, 5 medicinal plants (Sorghum halepense (L.) Pers., Convolvulus arvensis L., Physalis angulate L., Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers. and Portulaca oleracea L.) collected from 3 different soil structures and the metal content of these soil samples (Total 18 samples) (Ag, Al, As, Ba, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Li, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, and Sr) determined by using Inductively coupled plasma– mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The accuracy and precision of the method was evaluated by CRM 1573a Tomato Leaves. Additionally, metal content analyzes of samples were evaluated chemometrically. Principal Component Analyses (PCA) was applied to analyze of 11 common metals. According to the PCA, three principal components eigen value were higher than 1. The first 3 main components explained 78.9% of the total variance. According to the results of ICPMS, it has been determined that the soil difference does not affect metal content much.