Abstract:
The ability of plants to hyper-accumulate metals and metalloids from the surrounding environment may
pose a significant health risk to both humans and animals since plants form a substantial component of
diet. This attribute, however, has also been identified as a useful tool in bioremediation and
biomonitoring studies; where assimilated metal(loid)s in plants often correlate to environmental
exposure. Since the bioavailability and toxicity of these elements depends upon their chemical form,
speciation studies are essential in determining mobility and metabolic pathways. This can be done in a
number of ways where sampling, pre-treatment and storage are all important factors affecting
speciation. Appropriate analytical techniques for speciation studies can either be direct methods such as
XAS, or indirect methods which require species separation prior to analysis. Separation techniques can
be in the form of sequential extractions or column separation and analyte detection often utilises
instrumentation such as ESI-MS, ICP-MS and ICP-OES.
