Food Safety and Environmental Stewardship Program

A benign-by-design method for the determination of boron (B) in microsamples of biological tissues was developed. This is a simple, automated, microdigestion method. Use of reagents and generation of waste are minimized, and the use of toxic/hazardous reagents is eliminated as compared to currently available B methodology. Microsamples are accommodated by the method; 100-400 mg samples were used in this study. B is determined by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICPAES) at 249.678 nm. The instrument detection limit for B is 0.01 microgram/mL. Interference studies have been investigated for 21 common elements. Over 250 analyses of standard reference materials were analyzed during the study duration. Recoveries for a series of biological tissues, both plant and animal, ranged from 82-104%.