Levels of Trace Elements in Black Teas Commercialized in Saudi Arabia Using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry Abdallah A. Shaltout 1,2 & Omar H. Abd-Elkader 3,4 Received: 13 March 2016 /Accepted: 27 April 2016 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016 Abstract The present work has been demonstrated a de- veloped method for the determination of Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Mo, Cd, As, Cr, Pb, and V in different types of black teas collected from Saudi Arabia market using in- ductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Each sample represents a well-mixed combination of ten packets from the same type collected from the market. Detection limits in ng g -1 were 76.06, 166.03, 5.94, 2.94, 18.29, 18.29, 9.00, 0.48, 0.48, 7.67, 3.07, and 4.21 for Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Mo, Cd, As, Cr, Pb, and V, respectively. In order to validate the developed method, a certified reference material of green tea was analyzed. Further comparison with the results obtained from high- resolution continuum source atomic absorption spectrom- etry (HR-CS-AAS) was demonstrated. The obtained good agreement confirms the validity of the investigated meth- od. Fortunately, the concentrations of the heavy metals locate on the range of the international values. The highest metal content was found in Al-Rabee tea, and this type results should be confirmed by using a large number of samples in order to have satisfied and confirmed statistical analysis results. Keywords Elemental analysis . ICP-MS . Black tea Introduction Black tea has an economic and social interest and it represents one of the most widely popular beverages in the Arabic coun- tries. It is prepared by different methods from the leaves, leaf buds, and internodes of the Camellia sinensis after a fermen- tation process [1, 2]. Although there are different types of tea, the black tea represents the most widely used tea in the Middle East. Some types of the teas were considered as a natural medicine whereas it has recognized therapeutic value for the prevention and treatment of some diseases such as cancer, Parkinson, myocardial infarction, coronary artery and the re- moval of cadmium in administered rates [3, 4]. In addition, black tea represents a source of several elements such as zinc, manganese, iron, magnesium, copper, titanium, aluminum, bromine, sodium, potassium, nickel, chromium, and phospho- rus [5, 6]. Some of the metallic and non-metallic elements are essentially required within a certain permissible limits for the human body for healthy growth, development and the proper functioning of the body. Hence, the determination of trace elements in tea samples is essential in order to evaluate their nutritional value. The concentrations of these elements in tea are different according to the type of tea and geological sources [5]. However, their ingestion in excessive amount can accumulate trace and toxic metals to the human organ- isms, which consequently cause severe health problems [5, 6]. Therefore, the evaluation of these elements could be helpful against any expected ill effect. In addition, some undesirable substances also exist due to exposure to the environment. Therefore, the determination of the metallic and non-metallic elements in tea has a great of interest. Several attempts have been made to assess tea quality by chemical analysis usually * Abdallah A. Shaltout shaltout_a@hotmail.com 1 Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Taif University, P.O. Box 888, Taif 21974, Saudi Arabia 2 Spectroscopy Department, Physics Division, National Research Center, El-Behooth Str., 12622 Dokki, Cairo, Egypt 3 Department of Zoology, Science College, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia 4 Electron Microscope and Thin Films Department, National Research Center (NRC), El-Behooth Street, 12622, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt Biol Trace Elem Res DOI 10.1007/s12011-016-0728-x