Determination of the mineral compositions of some selected oil-bearing seeds and kernels using Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometry (ICP-AES)

The aim of this paper was to establish the mineral contents of oil-bearing seeds and kernels such as peanut, turpentine, walnut, hazelnut, sesame, corn, poppy, almond, sunflower etc., using Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometry (ICP-AES). Significant differences in mineral composition were observed among crops. All seeds and kernels contained high amounts of Al, Ca, Fe, K, Mg, Na, P and Zn. B, Cr, Cu, Li, Ni, Sr, Ti while V contents of the crops were found to be very low. The levels of K and P of all crops in this study were found to be higher than those of other seeds and kernels. The results obtained from analyses of the crops showed that the mean levels of potassiumcontent ranged from 1701.08 mg/kg (corn) to 20895.8 mg/kg (soybean), the average content of phosphorus ranged from 3076.9 mg/kg (turpentine) to 12006,5 mg/kg to 2617.4 mg/kg (cotton seed), and Ca from 68.4 mg/kg (corn) to 13195.7 mg/kg (poppy seed). The results show that these values may be useful for the evaluation of dietary information. Particularly the obtained results provide evidence that soybean, pinestone and poppy seed are a good source of K, P and Ca, respectively. Whereas pinestone is a good source of zinc.