Pinaacle 900h

The mineral content (potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium) was measured using an Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS), following the protocols outlined by Abbas et al. [26 (link)] with some adjustments. For this purpose, 10 g of dried sample were pulverized to create a powder. Then, 0.5 g of the sample powder were placed in a 50 mL conical flask. Next, a mixture of HNO₃ and HClO₄ (Nitric – perchloric acid) in a ratio of 5:1 was added to the flask. The mixture was then digested using a sand bath. The final step of the digestion process involved filtration using a Whatman 42 filter paper with a particle retention size of 2.5 μm. The filtered solution was then diluted with distilled water to reach a final volume of 100 mL in a 100 mL volumetric flask. To determine the mineral content, a 10 mL sample extract was placed in a 50 mL volumetric flask and then diluted with distilled water to get a total volume of 50 mL. Subsequently, the levels of potassium (K), sodium (Na), calcium (Ca), and magnesium (Mg) were quantified using an atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS) with the model PinAAcle 900H manufactured by PerkinElmer. The mineral concentration was quantified use the subsequent equation (5): $\%\text{mineral}\left(\text{DW}\right)=\frac{\text{sample}\text{reading}\times \text{final}\text{volume}\times \text{dilution}\text{factor}}{\text{sample}\text{weight}}$ where,
DW = Dry weight.

A part of the liver (1 g) was homogenized and dried completely in a hot air oven at 60°C−70°C. Further, the dried tissues were digested using 30% hydrogen peroxide and 0.25 N trace metal-free nitric acid at 50°C−60°C until a white ash formed. The gold concentration was estimated in the digested ashes through graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometry (GF-AAS) (PerkinElmer Model PinAAcle 900H). The gold concentration was quantified by using the standard calibration curve of the elemental gold standard (Sigma-Aldrich). All the GF-AAS analyses were conducted at a temperature of 1,800°C.23