Simple automated wet digestion of animal tissues for determination of seven elements by atomic absorption spectroscopy.

A simple, automated wet digestion procedure was developed for the quantitative determination by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) of arsenic, cadmium, copper, mercury, lead, selenium, and zinc in animal tissue. A commercial digestion block system with automated temperature programming was used. Recoveries of all elements from spiked bovine liver and kidney samples exceed 95%. The analytical results obtained for samples of NBS Bovine Liver (No. 1577a) agree well with certified values. The procedure is safe and requires minimum analyst time.