Determination of Germanium in Medicinal Plants by Atomic Absorption Spectrometry with Electrothermal Atomization

抄録

Flameless atomic absorption spectrometry combined with solvent extraction was developed for the determination of germanium in medicinal plants. A wet oxidation procedure using only nitric acid was suitable for ashing plant samples. Carbon tetrachloride and water were used as solvents for extraction and back-extraction. Measurements were carried out after preparing sample solutions in 0.5 M sodium hydroxide in order to enhance the sensitivity. This high sensitive method (detection limit, 1 ppb) was applied to the determination of germanium in some medicinal plants. The analytical results obtained indicate that medicinal plants contain small amounts of germanium ; it appeared that there was no connection between the pharmacological effects of medicinal plants and their germanium contents.