A simple and sensitive method for the determination of vanadium in foods wa
s established by using atomic absorption spectrophotometry with graphite fu
rnace atomization. The proposed method includes formation of a chelate-comp
lex by reacting vanadium with pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDCA), extractin
g the chelate with xylene and measurement of the extract by atomic absorpti
on, The recoveries of added vanadium to various foods were 91.3 and 109.1 %
, within 7.9 % of the coefficient variation. The sensitivity of this method
is 10 - 50 times higher than previous methods with a detection limit of 0.
01 mu g/g.