TITLE:
Selected Inorganic Nutrients in Black Tea from Three Tea Growing Agro-Ecological Areas in Kenya
AUTHORS:
Mangenya Thaddeus Mose, Kelvin O. Moseti, John K. Wanyoko, Johnson K. Kinyua, Daniel Kariuki, Esther N. Magiri, Martin A. Obanda
KEYWORDS:
Black Tea; Inorganic Nutrients; Spectrophotometry; Kenya
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.5 No.4,
February
26,
2014
ABSTRACT: The
tea plant absorbs dissolved nutrients from soils for its normal growth and
development, though to different extents. Nutrients play vital roles in various
metabolic processes, their deficiency or excess being deleterious to living
organisms. A study was carried out to quantitatively assess the inorganic
nutrient content (K, P, Ca, Mn, Fe, Zn and Cu) of twelve black tea samples
sourced from Murang’a, Meru and Kisii tea growing agro-ecological areas in
Kenya. K and P were quantified using a flame photometer and a UV-Vis
spectrophotometer respectively whereas Ca, Mn, Fe, Zn and Cu were quantified
using an Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS). The general accumulation
pattern of the inorganic nutrients in the tea samples was established to be; K (1.6% ± 0.05%-2.1% ± 0.01%) > P
(0.30% ± 0.01%-0.37% ± 0.04%) > Ca
(0.16% ± 0.01%-0.62% ± 0.03%) > Mn
(0.07% ± 0.009%-0.13% ± 0.004%) >
Fe (136 ± 8-320 ± 5 μg/g) >
Zn (27 ± 1-39 ± 7 μg/g) >
Cu (10 ± 3-16 ± 1 μg/g). Statistically
significant differences (p