Determination of Metals in Dietary Supplements Using HR-CS Solid AAS Application Note · contrAA 800

Introduction

The consumption of dietary supplements is widely spread and on the rise. These dietary supplements are generally used without prescriptions, proper counseling or any awareness of their potential health risks.In order to ensure the safety of these products and increase the awareness of the citizen to benefit from these dietary supplements it is of great importance to perform diligent analysis for (toxic) metals present in dietary supplements. While some metals are essential for living organisms because of their responsibility of maintaining the vital body functions, they have fatal effects when they are taken in excess. Research studies have even linked brain disorder symptoms to over dosage. On the other hand, heavy metals such as Pb and Cd are toxic at much lower levels and are known to induce serious diseases.

Atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) is a robust, reliable and sensitive analytical technique which is well suited for the determination of heavy metals. This analytical technique is therefore widely employed for this purpose.