Establishing of ‘Reference Plant’ for inorganic characterization of different plant species by chemical fingerprinting

The enormous amount of analytical data produced in environmental trace element research require beside a high degree of quality control a basis for comparability of single analytical values. The establishment of ‘Reference Plant’, comparable to the already existing ‘Reference Man’ by the International Commission of Radiological Protection (ICRP), can be a useful tool for this type of chemical ‘fingerprinting’. In this paper, various fingerprints of different plant species will be discussed and their comparability demonstrated.