| Abstract: | Abstract: Plant tissues of rice and wheat crops (n = 5) collected at harvest time were wet‐ashed in di‐acid mixture analytical‐grade nitric acid (HNO3)–perchloric acid (HClO4), 3:1, v/v] on a sand bath at 200 °C or dry‐ashed in a muffle furnace at 550 °C for 3 h in triplicate. The samples were analyzed for calcium (Ca), iron (Fe), and molybdenum (Mo) using double‐beam atomic absorption spectrophotometry (GBC‐Avanta ∑ model) and for boron (B) by colorimetry (UV‐VIS spectrophotometer, ECIL‐GS 5705 model) using Azomethine‐H procedure. As per the paired t‐test, both wet‐ashing and dry‐ashing procedures resulted in statistically similar analytical values for B, Ca, Fe, and Mo. However, the mean coefficients of variation were higher with the wet‐ashing procedure (6.19 to 9.64%) as compared to the dry‐ashing procedure (2.14 to 3.45%). The dry‐ashing procedure was found to be the best for routine chemical analysis of B and Mo in plant samples. |
