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Determination of trace element levels in flowers and leaves of vicia faba by ICP-MS

Source

This study measured trace and major elements in Vicia faba flowers and leaves, which the paper describes as consumed as tea and used as medicinal plant material.

Author Karen Pendergrass UPDATED 2026-05-26Cite this pageVersion history
Page snapshot
Cited by11 pages
Metals measured9
Evidence tierB
Year2020

Overview

This study measured trace and major elements in Vicia faba flowers and leaves, which the paper describes as consumed as tea and used as medicinal plant material. It is routeable for herbal-botanical infusion and botanical-supplement context, not for true Camellia sinensis tea.

Key numbers

  • Table 2 reports values in mg/kg for flowers and leaves.
  • Vicia faba flowers contained Cr 2.21 +/- 0.001, Fe 559 +/- 0.002, Zn 48.12 +/- 0.001, Al 22.20 +/- 0.003, Cu 2.06 +/- 0.001, Pb 0.31 +/- 0.001, Cd 0.11 +/- 0.001, Mn 20.04 +/- 0.001, and Ni 2.42 +/- 0.001 mg/kg.
  • Vicia faba leaves contained Cr 9.02 +/- 0.002, Fe 1040 +/- 0.003, Zn 23.10, Al 35.07 +/- 0.002, Cu 6.03 +/- 0.002, Pb 0.82 +/- 0.001, Cd 0.21 +/- 0.001, Mn 131.07 +/- 0.002, and Ni 6.04 +/- 0.001 mg/kg.
  • Cadmium was below the 0.3 mg/kg herbal-medicine maximum limit cited by the authors.
  • Leaves had higher Cr, Fe, Al, Cu, Pb, Cd, Mn, and Ni than flowers; flowers had higher Zn than leaves.

Methods

Flowers and leaves were dried, weighed, digested, and analyzed by ICP-MS. The sample analysis was conducted in triplicate with blank experiments and quality-control checks.

Implications

The source fills botanical infusion and herbal supplement evidence for a non-Camellia plant material that can be consumed as tea. It should route to herbal-botanical infusions and botanical supplements, while avoiding true-tea product claims.

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Verification notes

The paper uses the phrase “consumed as tea” for Vicia faba flowers and leaves; this page treats the matrix as herbal infusion/botanical material rather than Camellia sinensis tea. The exact Vicia faba flower/leaf names are narrow sample descriptors; frontmatter uses broader herbal-botanical routing terms. The table prints the zinc leaf uncertainty with a less-than symbol, so the page records the mean without treating that symbol as a standard deviation.

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