Nutrient elements of commercial tea from Nigeria by an instrumental neutron activation analysis technique.

A prototype miniature neutron source reactor (MNSR) with a thermal neutron flux of 3.0 x 10(11) n cm(-2) s(-1) has been used to determine the concentrations of some nutrient elements leading to short-lived activation products in commercial tea leaf samples from Nigeria. A total of eight elements Al, Ca, Cl, Cu, K, Mg, Mn and Na, that can be routinely used for quality control purposes, were analyzed in this study. Two biological reference materials, tomato leaves (NIST-1573) and citrus leaves (NIST-1572) were used as the standard and quality control materials, respectively. The analytical results show that the average concentrations of Al, Ca, Cl, Cu, K, Mg, Mn and Na in Nigerian tea are slightly higher when compared with a Chinese herbal tea analyzed in this study. The concentration ratios of K/Ca were found to be high in all the samples analyzed suggesting cultivation in potash-rich soils.