A round-robin determination of boron in botanical and biological samples

The accurate determination of boron (B) at trace and ultratrace concentrati ons is an important step toward establishing the role of B in biological fu nctions. However, low-level B concentrations are difficult to determine acc urately, especially for many botanical and biological matrices. A round-rob in study was conducted to assess analytical agreement for low-level B deter minations. Ten experienced research groups from analytical laboratories ext ending across Europe, Asia, and the US participated in this study. These gr oups represent a cross-section of academic, commercial, and government faci lities. The researchers employed both ion-coupled plasma and neutron techni ques in the study. Results from this round-robin study indicate good agreem ent between participating laboratories at the mg/kg level, but at the lowes t levels, mu g/kg, only three laboratories participated, and agreement was poor. By encouraging discussion among scientists over these data, the secon dary goal of this round-robin study is to stimulate continued improvement i n analytical procedures and techniques for accurate low-level B determinati ons. Furthermore, it is intended to encourage the development of a variety of low-level (low mg/kg and mu g/kg) B certified reference samples in biolo gical and botanical matrices. The results from the round-robin analyses wer e compiled and are summarized in this article.