Assessment of the Elemental Profile of Leafy Vegetables by Synchrotron-Radiation-Induced Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy

The nutrient profiling of green leafy vegetables is largely concentrated on biochemical assays and their elemental composition is often overlooked. At the same time, the investigation of the elemental composition of plants is essential, as they are required in several metabolic processes for the normal growth and development of the human body and their deficiency can lead to several clinical disorders. In this paper, we consider the potential of the synchrotron-radiation-induced energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy technique as a rapid, sensitive, and simultaneous multielemental detection tool to investigate the elemental composition of different elements present in some leafy vegetables: dill, fenugreek, mustard, and chenopodium. The X-ray fluorescence spectra of the leaves of dill, fenugreek, mustard, and chenopodium were excited by synchrotron X-ray radiation having an energy of 15 keV and recorded in the energy range <20 keV. The recorded spectrum shows the presence of potassium, calcium, manganese, iron, nickel, copper, zinc, arsenic, and selenium with varying concentrations in different leafy vegetables. PyMca software was applied to determine the concentration of the various detected elements. The relative quantitative comparison of the detected elements shows that chenopodium leaves are a rich source of potassium among all the leafy vegetables studied. The leaves of mustard and chenopodium are abundant in calcium, while the leaves of dill and fenugreek have a higher content of trace elements like manganese, iron, copper, nickel, selenium and zinc. Herein, the role of the detected elements in human and plant health is also described.