Atomic absorption spectrometric determination of calcium and other metallic elements in some animal protein sources

The phosphorus content of some animal protein sources was determined in order to identify the sample with the highest phosphorus content for use as a pilot sample. Varying concentrations of strontium and lanthanum were added to solutions of the ashed pilot sample for the determination of calcium and magnesium using flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry operated on the air–acetylene mode. At least 3000 ppm of strontium or lanthanum was required to completely overcome the interference of phosphate ion, PO43−, and give peak values for calcium. The presence of strontium or lanthanum did not affect the amount of magnesium obtained from the analyses. Based on this, a procedure is proposed and the results obtained by this procedure for calcium are more enhanced than those obtained without the addition of strontium or lanthanum for the same samples whereas comparable results were obtained for all other elements whether strontium or lanthanum was added or not. The method gives more accurate results and is reproducible. The coefficients of variation calculated using one of the samples were 0.58% for magnesium, 3.12% for zinc; 0.44% for calcium, 11.06% for lead, 22.22% for nickel, 3.53% for manganese and 3.50% for iron at the concentration levels found in that sample. Recoveries of spiked calcium, magnesium and zinc were quantitative. Also, for selected elements, results from the procedure compared well with those from chemical analysis.