Determination of essential and non-essential elements in some medicinal plants by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XFS) (CAT#: STEM-ST-0239-WXH)

Introduction

In recent times, focus on plant research has increased all over the world and a large body of evidence has been collected to show the immense potential of medicinal plants used in various traditional systems. The therapeutic effect of these plants for the treatment of various diseases is based on the chemical constituents present in them.
Although the efficacy of herbs for curative purposes is often accounted for in terms of its organic constituents (essential oil, vitamins, glycosides, etc.) it has been established that there exists a relationship between the chelating of metals and some chemotherapeutic agents. Trace elements play a very important role in the formation of the active chemical constituents present in medicinal plants and are there responsible for their medicinal as well as toxic properties.

Add to Cart Please Inquire

Principle Applications Procedure Materials Notes Related Products

Principle

XRF describes the process where some high-energy radiation excites atoms by shooting out electrons from the innermost orbitals. When the atom relaxes, that is, when outer electrons fill inner shells, X-Ray fluorescence radiation is emitted.

Applications

XRF is widely used as a fast characterization tool in many analytical labs across the world, for applications as diverse as metallurgy, forensics, polymers, electronics, archaeology, environmental analysis, geology and mining.

Procedure

1. Primary X-rays knock out an electron from one of the orbitals surrounding the nucleus within an atom of the material.
2. A hole is produced in the orbital, resulting in a high energy, unstable configuration for the atom.
3. To restore equilibrium, an electron from a higher energy, outer orbital falls into the hole. Since this is a lower energy position, the excess energy is emitted in the form of fluorescent X-rays.
The energy difference between the expelled and replacement electrons is characteristic of the element atom in which the fluorescence process is occurring – thus, the energy of the emitted fluorescent X-ray is directly linked to a specific element being analyzed.

Materials

XRF spectrometer (including X-ray source, sample chamber, analysing crystal, detector and signal processing computer)

Other recommended products

Analysis of zinc, iron and selenium in whole grain wheat by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XFS) (CAT#: STEM-ST-0230-WXH)
Study of the calcium binding of kinetoplastid membrane protein (KMP-11) by total reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF) spectrometry (CAT#: STEM-ST-0200-WXH)
Semiquantitative Evaluation of Secondary Carbonates by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XFS) (CAT#: STEM-ST-0235-WXH)
Analysis of apoplastic and symplastic fluids by total reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF) spectrometry (CAT#: STEM-ST-0212-WXH)
Multielemental fast analysis of vegetation samples by wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (CAT#: STEM-ST-0223-WXH)
Multielement Analysis of Soft Drinks by total reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF) spectrometry (CAT#: STEM-ST-0226-WXH)
Metal binding study of HypB by total reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF) spectrometry (CAT#: STEM-ST-0194-WXH)
Analysis of non-organic elements in plant foliage by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XFS) (CAT#: STEM-ST-0191-WXH)