Chemometric evaluation of trace metal concentrations in some nuts and seeds

Seventeen trace metals in acid digests of nuts and seeds were determined using inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. The data were subjected to chemometric evaluation using principal component analysis (PCA), linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and cluster analysis (CA) in an attempt to classify the samples. Hazelnuts (raw and dry roasted), almonds (raw and dry roasted), sunflower seeds (black and white), peanuts (raw and dry roasted), cashew nuts, Brazil nuts, walnuts, chickpeas (raw and dry roasted), pumpkin seeds (raw and dry roasted), and pistachio nuts were used as samples. The samples were classified into seven groups by PCA and CA. All group members determined using PCA and CA were found by LDA to be correctly classified in the predicted groups. Interestingly, the chemometric evaluation indicated that the raw and roasted nuts are very close to each other even though some originated from different countries.