Determination of the origin of Hyoscyamus niger by the use of trace element analyses

This study is related to the determination of the origin of Hyoscyamus Niger collected from 15 different locations between 37th and 47th kms from the Gölbası Junction on Ankara - Konya highway by the use of trace element found by Ion Coupled Plasma Spectroscopy (ICP) Since the amounts of elements observed from the analyses were different they were arbitrarily classified into five different group as follows: 1. Group; magnesium, iron , zinc. 2. Group; barium, calcium, lead. 3. Group; chromium, copper, nickel. 4. Group; lithium, titanium, vanadium. 5. Group; aluminum, potassium, sodium and silicon. The 1st group were divided into three, 2nd group into four, 3rd group into four, 4th group into two and 5th group into two different categories according to the amounts determined by ICP. The purpose behind this process was to establish any similarities between the amounts of the element based upon relations between the categories. In other words the purpose was to estimate the similarity between the results of the unknown sample and the pre determined results (a1,a2, ?a15). Firstly 15 plant seeds were analyzed with ICP under similar experimental conditions then the seeds of 5 plants with unknown origin were subjected to the same analyses. The comparison of the data obtained from these five plants with those obtained with the first analyses showed that the sample X1 gave a similar data with those samples of a13 - a14 and sample X2 gave similar results to those samples of a5-a6. It was observed that X1 was similar to sample a13 as regards to the amount of silicone and sodium. X2 was very close to sample a4 regarding to the amount of aluminum and sodium. Based upon these processes following relations were established: X1=a14, X2=a6, X3=a3, X4=a13, X5=a12 It was concluded that it was possible to determine the origins of the plants by the use of the elements they contain. Key Words : Hyoscyamus niger, alkaloid, trace element, ICP-OES