Determination of mineral contents of Turkish herbal tea (Salvia aucheri var. canescens) at different infusion periods.

Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry has been used for the determination of contents of major and minor elements in Salvia aucheri var. canescens (sage) and its infusions for different intervals. Twenty-five elements (Al, B, Ba, Bi, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ga, Ln, K, Li, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, P, Pb, S, Sr, Ti,V, and Zn) were detected in both S. aucheri and its infusions. The ranges of mineral levels varied from Cd (1.6668 mg/kg) to K (13,570 mg/kg) and Ni (0.05273 mg/kg) to K (196.25 mg/kg) in the herb and its infusions, respectively. The levels of K, Ca, Na, Mg, and S in all infusions in this work were higher than those of the other elements. However, Al, Ba, Ca, Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Li, K, Mg, Na, Ni, P, Pb, Sr, Ti, and Zn contents were high in the first period of infusion. As a result, the first period of infusion may be proposed as the optimum infusion time because of nutritional properties. These results may be useful for the evaluation of dietary information.