DETERMINATION OF TRACE-ELEMENTS IN EGYPTIAN CANE SUGAR BY NEUTRON-ACTIVATION ANALYSIS

Major, minor, trace and ultratrace concentrations of Ag, Al, As, Au, Ba, Be, Br, Ca, Cd, Ce, Cl, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Dy, Eu, Fe, Ga, Hf, K, La, Li, Lu, Mg, Mn, Na, Nb, Ni, P, Pb, Sb, Sc, Se, Sm, Sn, Sr, Ta, Th, Ti, U, V, W and Zn in crude juice, principal juice, sirup juice (produced during the successive stages of sugar industry), sugar cane plant, molasses, deposits (produced as a result of the addition of Ca(OH)2 and superphosphate and passage of SO2 through juice), A- and B-sugar and soil samples have been determined by destructive and nondestructive instrumental neutron activation (INAA), atomic absorption spectrophotometric (AAS) and inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometric (ICP-AES) analyses. The results obtained by the methods applied are in excellent agreement. Concentrations of the elements are different. Variations in element concentrations in cane plants and in crude juice may be attributed to composition changes or different botanical structures; in mixed juice, sirup, molasses and deposits they may be due to chemical treatments or corrosion effects on containers, whereas in soil samples to geochemical and biogeochemical fractionation as a result of adsorption and uptake of trace elements by plants from surrounding soil solutions.