Mineralization procedure for use with the fluorometric determination of zinc in biological samples

Several minerelization procedures have been evaluated for use in conjunction with a method to determine zinc in milk, eggs, water and whole diets, based on the formation and extraction into diethyl ether, of Zn-5,7-dibromo-8-quinolinol. The results were compared with the known contents of standard samples or those obtained by flame atomic-absorption spectrometry. The most satisfactory procedure employed digestion with acid mixtures to destroy organic matter, and yielded a detection limit of 0.3 mg/kg for Zn.