Determination of magnesium in botanical reference materials by instrumental neutron activation analysis. Application to beech leaves and spruce needles

Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) was applied to the rapid determination of magnesium in the botanical reference materials Beech Leaves-100 and Spruce Needles-101. The magnesium content was quantitatively determined by measuring the gamma-ray photopeak at 1014 keV of the short-lived radionuclide27Mg (9.46 m). The magnesium concentrations in the two materials were found to be 834.6±50.2 μg·g-1 dry weight and 618.6±36.2 μg·g-1, respectively. When assaying a 0.1 g sample under the same experimental conditions the limit of detection is 30 μg of Mg.