Determination of essential and toxic elements in products of milling wheat

Abstract

The bread wheat bran is used as a raw material rich in dietary fiber in the production. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor the content of essential and toxic elements in the flour and bran. This paper investigates essential (Zn, Cu, Fe and Mn) and toxic (Pb, Cd, Hg and As) elements in products of milling wheat grown in the whole territory of Banat, the region in Serbia. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry was used for analysis. The mean contents of the following elements Pb, Cd, Hg, As, Fe, Mn and Zn in wheat kernels were 0.143, 0.007, 0.017, 35.7643, 50.865 and 21.174 mg/kg, respectively. Cluster analysis (CA) and principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to discriminate and to group the different samples, according to element content. Quality results show that the first two principal components, accounting for 80.17% of the total variance, can be considered sufficient for data representation and the first two principal components of toxic elements and essential microelements. Cd (15.28%), Zn (17.91%), Cu (17.08), Fe (16.91%) and Mn (17.54%), have been found the most influential for the first factor coordinate calculation, while the contribution of Pb (27.93%) and Hg (61.86%) has been the most important variable for the second factor coordinate calculation.