Total reflection X-ray fluorescence as a simple and sustainable analytical technique for the analysis of herbal infusions and teas

Herbal teas are used as medicines in many forms of traditional remedies and are a popular beverage worldwide. Therefore, it is important to obtain information on the multi-elemental composition of herbal teas and infusions, which has not been adequately studied. The introduction of environmentally friendly analytical methods has been one of the main goals of analytical chemistry in the last two decades. High- throughput analytical methods with low-cost multi-elemental analysis are attractive for the identification and quantification of elements in medicinal herbal infusions.

The aim of the present research work was to develop a low-cost and rapid method for multi-elemental analysis of pure black and green tea, decaffeinated black and green tea, and herbal teas with additives using Mo-TXRF system. The developed method was applied to investigate how the infusion time and water temperature affect the elemental content of herbal teas. In addition, the different types of water (tap water, mineral water, and high purity water) used to prepare the teas were considered. The study also demonstrates the potential of experimental design tools to select the best experimental conditions (i.e., sample amount, sample volume on reflector and measurement time) for preparing tea samples prior to TXRF analysis.

Despite the fact that a large number of samples should be considered for the study of differences between infusions, significant compositional differences can be detected using the developed method. It is expected that the developed TXRF method and the information obtained from this study can be useful in the fields of nutrition and health.

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Artikel online veröffentlicht:
16. November 2023