Determination of Major and Minor Elements in the Rhizome of Kaempferiaparviflora by Analytical Techniques

Kaempferia parviflora (family: Zingiberaceae) is a perennial medicinal plant whose rhizomes have been used by the indigenous people of Manipur (one of the 29 states of India) for primary healthcare from the ancient time. Thus, in the present study, we have performed investigations on the rhizomes of Kaempferia parviflora using different analytical techniques such as Flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (FAAS), Inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), Scanning electron microscopy with Energy dispersive x-rays analysis (SEM-EDX), X-Ray diffraction (XRD) and CHNS analyser to determine the presence of major and minor (trace) elements. The major elements were C (28.60 wt. %), H (5.02 wt. %), N (3.35 wt. %) on the basis of CHNS analysis or C (62.59 at. %) and O (36.69 at. %) on the basis of SEM-EDX and minor elements were Na (6.5 ppm), Mg (4.3 ppm), K (11.6 ppm), Fe (0.66 ppm), Ca (0.41 ppm), V (less than 2 ppb), Cr (7 ppb), Mn (361 ppb), Co (less than 2 ppb), Ni (32 ppb), Cu (55 ppb), As (less than5 ppb), Pb (17 ppb) on basis of FAAS and ICP-MS. After the correlation of the various results, we have explored a comprehensive elemental fingerprint of the sample. In this study we have determined the presence of 17 elements (C, H, N, O, Na, K, Fe, Mg, Ca, Cr, Mn, Ni, Co, Cu, Pb, As and V) quantitatively in the rhizome. No study on elemental analysis of the rhizome of this plant was performed earlier. So, this study will definitely beneficial in further herbal based medicinal formulations.