A Comparative Study of the Inorganic Nutrients in Different Types of Zea Mays L. Using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used in this study to perform a quantitative elemental analysis in order to compare the inorganic nutrients in commercial white and noncommercial yellow maize flours. ICP-MS measurements reveals that both white and yellow maize flours contains 20 different elements including toxic elements (Pb, Cd, As, Ni, Cr, Sr, U), essential elements (Ca, Co, Se, Zn, Cu, Fe, Mn, Mo) and probably essential elements (Mg, K, Na, Ba, Al) and their crossponding nutrients values were compared in detail. The ICP -MS analysis revealed that inorganic elements such as Al, As, Ba, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Ni, Pb, U, Zn have concentration of 168.19, 0.17, 2.13, 1327.56, 0.04, 0.12, 9.14, 5.43, 82.03, 34.90, 99.62, 2.83, 0.74, 96.09, 4.5, 9.49, 6.12, 0.03, 6.47 µg/g in white and 200.05, 0.17, 2.53, 1290.27, 0.04, 0.145, 9.85, 11.46, 115.13, 914.98, 1594.14, 21.48, 1.71, 63.89, 6.08, 17.05, 5.23, 0.027, 33.89 µg/g in yellow maize flour, respectively. On the other hand toxic elements such as Cd or Pb in both white and yellow maize flours does not exceed their maximum limit set by the European Legislation or values recommended by the codex alimentarius.