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Method development for the determination of iron in milligram amounts of rice plants (Oryza sativa L.) from cultivation experiments using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry

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Abstract

The amount of sample that is available for analysis in laboratory plant cultivation experiments is usually very limited. Highly sensitive analytical techniques are therefore required, even for elements that are present in the plants at mg g−1 concentrations, and graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS) was chosen in this work because of its micro-sampling capability, and its relatively simple operation. Four micro-methods were investigated for the determination of iron in roots and leaves of rice plants: i) a micro-digestion with nitric and hydrochloric acids, ii) a slurry procedure using tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) tissue solubilizer, iii) a slurry prepared in 1.4 mol L−1 nitric acid, and treated in an ultrasonic bath, and iv) the direct analysis of solid samples. The micro-digestion was suffering from high blank values and contamination problems, so that it could not be recommended for routine purposes. The TMAH method exhibited poor precision and occasional low recoveries, particularly for real samples. Direct solid sampling analysis gave results similar to those obtained with the slurry technique with ultrasonic agitation for the determination of iron in certified reference materials with iron content up to about 100 μg g−1, but was too sensitive for the investigated rice plants, which had an iron content up to several mg g−1. The slurry technique with ultrasonic treatment of the samples, suspended in dilute nitric acid, was finally adopted as the method of choice.

The method was then applied for the determination of iron in the leaves and in different compartments of the roots of two rice cultivars, one sensitive to iron toxicity, an important nutritional disorder, and the other one resistant to iron toxicity. The results suggest that the higher resistance to iron toxicity of the second cultivar is due to a smaller uptake of iron from the soil, resulting in lower iron levels in all compartments of the plant.

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Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful to Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Rio Grande do Sul (FAPERGS) and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for financial support of this work (MMS and JPF) and for research scholarships (ICFD, MM, JPF, and BW), to Instituto Rio Grandense do Arroz (IGRA) for providing the rice seeds, and to Analytik Jena AG for the loan of an atomic absorption spectrometer.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Química, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Av. Bento Gonçalves 9500, 91501–970, Porto Alegre RS, Brazil

    Márcia M. Silva, Maria Goreti R. Vale & Isabel C. Ferreira Damin

  2. Departamento de Química, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC), 88040–900, Florianópolis SC, Brazil

    Bernhard Welz

  3. Departamento de Botânica e Centro de Biotecnologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Av. Bento Gonçalves 9500, 91501–970, Porto Alegre RS, Brazil

    Marcos Mandaji & Janette P. Fett

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  1. Márcia M. Silva
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  2. Maria Goreti R. Vale
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  3. Isabel C. Ferreira Damin
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  4. Bernhard Welz
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  5. Marcos Mandaji
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  6. Janette P. Fett
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Correspondence to Bernhard Welz.

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Silva, M.M., Vale, M.G.R., Damin, I.C.F. et al. Method development for the determination of iron in milligram amounts of rice plants (Oryza sativa L.) from cultivation experiments using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. Anal Bioanal Chem 377, 165–172 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-003-2072-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-003-2072-1

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