Characterization of commercially available products of aronia according to their metal content

Abstract

\n Introduction. Among different fruit species, aronia have attracted a great\n attention because of its wide range of protective effects with potential benefits for\n human health. Furthermore, the consumption of products of aronia (juice, tea, berries) is\n becoming a part of a healthy lifestyle. Materials and Methods. The\n multi-element characterization of products of aronia has been carried out using\n inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). Results and\n Discussion. Among the major elements, the most abundant are K, Ca and P, followed\n by the Mg and Na. Fe, Zn, Mn, Cu, Bi and Si are the most abundant among the microelements.\n In terms of heavy metals (As, Cd, Pb), it can be concluded that the concentrations of them\n are below permissible levels (PLs) prescribed by national legislation in all samples. The\n chemometric techniques of principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA)\n were used to differentiation of products aronia according to their metal content. The\n application of PCA and CA was resulted in two clusters with similarities in the mineral\n composition. The first cluster includes tea bag samples (T1-T6). The second cluster\n includes berries (B1, B2), juices (J1-J4) and leaves (L). Conclusion. Data\n obtained in this study showed that analyzed products are potentially a rich source of some\n dietary metals such are K, Ca, P, Mg, Na, Fe and Zn. Obtained results could be also used\n as selection criteria for further use of products of aronia as a part of conventional\n diet. \n