Levels of Major and Minor Elements in Some Commercial Fruit Juices Available in Serbia

Dragan S Velimirović^1*, Snežana S Mitić², Snežana B Tošić², Biljana M Kaličanin¹,  Aleksandra N Pavlović² and Milan N Mitić²

¹Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pharmacy, ²Faculty of Sciences and Mathematics, Department of Chemistry, University of Niš, Serbia

*For correspondence: Email: drvelimirovic@yahoo.com;.Tel: +381184226712

Received: 23 August 2012                                                                     Revised accepted: 17 June 2013

http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/tjpr.v12i5.22   

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the macro- and micro-nutrient elements of some commercially available fruit juices in Serbia.

Method: Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) technique was employed for determination of the major and minor elements in samples of two different types of fruit juices - clear and cloudy. 

Results: Among macro-nutrient elements, potassium (K) had the highest content of 230.17 µg/g in samples of multivitamine cloudy juice. The content of K was higher in cloudy fruit juices than in clear fruit juices. The content of iron, which is among the group of trace elements, ranged from 2.237 to 5.911 µg/g in clear juices and 3.55 to 10.05 µg/g in cloudy fruit juices. Other trace elements followed the descending order copper > zinc > nickel in terms of their content. The presence of aluminum and cadmium in the tested samples of fruit juices can be toxic since they have no nutritional value, and hence may be treated as potential contaminants in these beverages.

Conclusion: All the tested juices had some nutritional value for human health and the juices could be use as an additional source of these elements. The content of aluminium and cadmium are below levels permitted by national regulations.