Hazardous impact of toxic metals on tobacco leaves grown in contaminated soil by ultrasonic assisted pseudo-digestion: Multivariate study

Tobacco leaves (Nicotiana tabacum L.), agricultural soil and pollute irrigated lake water samples were collected during 2005-2006 and analyzed for Cd and Ni by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS). A simple and efficient procedure was investigated for the complete decomposition of tobacco leaves using ultrasonic assisted acid pseudo-digestion method (UPDM). A Plackett-Burman experimental design was used as a multivariate strategy for the evaluation of seven factors/variables at once, while central composite were used to found optimum values of significant variables. The accuracy of the proposed methods was assessed by analyzing certified reference (CRM); Virginia tobacco leaves (CTA-VTL-2). The results being compared with those obtained by conventional wet acid digestion method. The result obtained by optimized method showed good agreement with the certified values and sufficiently high recovery 97.8 and 98.7% for Cd and Ni, respectively. Under optimal conditions, the detection limits (3 sigma) were evaluated to be 0.019 mu g g(-1) for Cd and 0.37 mu g g(-1) for Ni. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of Cd and Ni in raw, processed tobacco and different branded cigarettes samples. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.