The distribution of selected inorganic elements in tobacco by instrumental neutron activation analysis

Abstract

The use of instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) in determining selected elements in biological materials has been reported by numerous authors. Some of these have detailed the use of INAA to determine an elemental analysis in tobaccos of various geographical origins. This paper describes the first use of INAA to measure the distribution of selected inorganic elements within the tobacco leaf at a single plant stalk position for one tobacco curing routine. Three replicate plots of a common bright tobacco cultivar were grown under normal cultural conditions characteristic for the bright variety. The tobacco leaves were sampled at selected positions in the leaf. The brigh tobacco was cured in a conventional flue-curing barn using standard practices. Immediately after collection, each individual sample was freeze-dried, crushed and sampled. The leaf midrib samples were prepared using a similar procedure. A subsample of about 100 mg was taken from each sample, sealed in a polyethylene bag, irradiated in a thermal neutron flux of 2×10¹⁷ n·m⁻²·s⁻¹ in a pneumatic rabbit system, and subsequently counted to obtain the reported data. A standard reference material was used as a comparator to yield relative elemental concentrations for Ca, Mg, Mn, Na, K, Cl and Br. The data show that chlorine, potassium, sodium and calcium have definite concentration trends within the tobacco leaf. The data also show that some elements, e.g. Mn, were more uniformly distributed throughout the leaf.