The preservation and protection of the environment has become a major
challenge of our times since this has to be compatible with the ecolog
ical needs. The concept of Environmental Specimen Banking (ESB) acquir
es importance in providing the data base for deeper insight into ecoch
emical processes. Methodological development and preparation of refere
nce materials (RMs) are also essential to such studies. Systematic eff
orts are to be made to acquire a good number of reference materials to
be useful for analysis of toxic as well as essential components. Our
experience has shown that it is possible to procure worthy and scienti
fically valuable specimens from soils and leafy food substances. Explo
ring preparation of suitable specimens from a country such as India mi
ght be a worthy exercise since it is possible to obtain clean specimen
s in this part of the world. Analytical data for determination of some
trace and major elements in prepared RMs are presented.