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Updated: Jun 12, 2026

Measuring Fluxes of Mineral Nutrients and Toxicants in Plants with Radioactive Tracers
Published on: August 22, 2014
Natural and artificial radioactivity determination of some medicinal plants
Donatella Desideri1, Maria Assunta Meli, Carla Roselli
1Institute of General Chemistry, Urbino University Carlo Bo, Piazza Rinascimento 6, 61029 Urbino, Italy. donatella.desideri@uniurb.it
Abstract:
Several medicinal plants used in Italy were analysed to determine natural and artificial radioactivity in those parts (leaves, fruits, seeds, roots, peduncles, flowers, barks, berries, thallus) used generally as remedies. The radionuclides were determined by alpha ((238)U, (210)Po) and gamma ((214)Pb-Bi, (210)Pb, (40)K and (137)Cs) spectrometry. (238)U ranged between <0.1 and 7.32 Bq kg(dry)(-1); (210)Po between <0.1 and 30.3 Bq kg(dry)(-1); (214)Pb-(214)Bi between <0.3 and 16.6 Bq kg(dry)(-1); (210)Pb between <3 and 58.3 Bq kg(dry)(-1); (40)K between 66.2 and 3582.0 Bq kg(dry)(-1); (137)Cs between <0.3 and 10.7 Bq kg(dry)(-1). The percentage of (210)Po extraction in infusion and decoction was also determined; the arithmetical mean value of percentage of (210)Po extraction resulted 20.7+/-7.5.
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Alpha (α) decay is the emission of an α particle from the nucleus. For example, polonium-210 undergoes α decay:

