Determination And Study Of The Main Metal Elemental Contents In Chinese Prickly Ash Of Shaanxi

Chinese prickly ash is the most important spices of people in China. The heavy metalcontents and food safety evaluation research in our country is in a state of blank. So far thereis no heavy metals limits of Chinese prickly ash in national standard. There is no clearregulation in <Pollutants in limited of food>either. Most enterprise of our country referencethe limit requirements of vegetables and fruits and other products to set the biggest limits ofarsenic, lead in Chinese prickly ash(powder). The limits of arsenic and lead are0.5mg/kg and1.0mg/kg respectively.In many times of actual testing, the content of lead in Chinese pricklyash is always higher than the standard and become a kind of food safety hazards.The determination of heavy metals in Chinese prickly ash and other spices was establishedby ICP-MS. This method is accurate and rapid for determination and study of heavy metalcontents in Chinese prickly ash. The food safety evaluation to safeguard people’s health wasalso studied. There is important significance to development of Chinese prickly ash industryin our province. The study shows that:The determination of23kinds of inorganic and heavy metal elements was established bymicrowave digestion combined with ICP-MS in Chinese prickly ash and other spices. Thecontents of K, Ca, Mg, Mn, Fe, Al are rich in Chinese prickly ash. The contents of Pb ishigher in the measured areas. The contents of Pb in the measured areas of Chinese prickly ashare higher than the spices evaluation standard except Tongchuan xiyuan and Qishan. Thecontent of Pb is the highest in Heyang reaching2.58mg/kg. The contents of Pb of other areasare range from0.8to2.1mg/kg.This study analyzed the method established by the sources of uncertainty. The expandeduncertainty is0.977±0.117mg/kg (k=2) when the concentration of lead in Chinese pricklyash is0.977mg/kg (average measured five times).There are similar inorganic elements fingerprints in Chinese prickly ash of different areasand there are obvious peak shape in the similar fingerprints in Al, Fe, Mn, Cu, Ba and Pb. This can be used as inorganic elements fingerprints in different Chinese prickly ash. There isstronger synergy in the enrichment of inorganic elements in Chinese prickly ash. It can beknown that the characteristic elements of Chinese prickly ash are Al, Fe, V, K, Zn, Pb byprincipal component analysis. Cluster analysis to inorganic elements cannot distinguish regionof Chinese prickly ash.Pb, As, Cd, Cr, Hg, Zn, Cu and Ni eight heavy metals of Chinese prickly ash and soil ofmajor areas of Shaanxi Province were carried on the correlation analysis. The result showsthat the correlation is small between them. The heavy metals contents with the soil in Chineseprickly ash is no direct relationship. There is the enrichment of heavy metals such as lead inChinese prickly ash.According to the standard PTWI created by United Nations food and agricultureorganization (FAO) and the world health organization (WHO), the intake of lead in Chineseprickly ash of normal eating Chinese prickly ash of the inhabitants of our country is only1.64%of the PTWI. Therefore, the use of Chinese prickly ash as spices is very safe.