Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) of Japanese Quince Biomass

An ICP-MS system (iCAP TQe , Thermo Fisher Scientific GmbH, Bremen, Germany) equipped with PFA nebulizer and connected with ASX-560 autosampler was used to analyze the contents of 30 elements in the samples. The plasma power was 1549 w, an argon flow of 14 mL/min, an auxiliary gas flow of 0.8 mL/min. The peristaltic pump speed of the ICP-MS was set to 70 rpm.

The instrument control software used was Qtegra™. External calibration (shown in file ICP-MS _data_standards) was performed using multielement standard solutions (ICP multi-element standard solution XVI (21 elements), Supelco, Merck, Darmstadt, Germany and ICP multi-element standard solution IX (9 elements), Supelco, Merck, Darmstadt, Germany in 2% nitric acid (v/v) at the following element concentration levels: 0, 0.4, 1.3, 3.8, 11.4, 34.3, 102.9, 308.6, 925.9, 25000 µg/L. 0.50 g of the Japanese quince leaves and twigs and 0.25 g of the Japanese quince fruit, pulp and peels were introduced into the Teflon vessels.

For inorganic evaluation, the Japanese quince samples further were digested using microwaves within a closed system (CEM MARS 6, Mathews, NC, USA) at 200°C using 6 mL of HNO3, 2 mL of H2O2. After cooling, the vessels were transferred to volumetric flasks and the volume was made up with 50 mL of deionized water and strained using a 0.2 μm glass fiber PTFE filter. Samples were prepared and tested with three replicates.

Data The data was processed with Qtegra software (Thermo Scientific), and the file ICP-MS _data_samples was composed of the representative trace element profiles of specific Japanese quince biomass (twigs, leaves, fruits, peels): trace element vs. concentration (mg/100g).