*Trace Element Determination in Medicinal Plant Samples by ED-XRF Analysis DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.107854*

less filter paper, washed the residue twice with hot water, ignite a crucible in a flame, cool, and weighed. Cooled the silica crucible in desiccator weighed the residue and calculated the acid insoluble ash value [8–11].

**Water soluble ash:** Total ash obtained was boiled for five minutes with 25 mL of distilled water. Cooled and collected the insoluble matter on an ash less filter paper, washed with hot water and again ignited for 15 minutes at temperature not exceeding 450°C and percentage of water soluble ash was calculated [12, 13]. **Sulfated ash:** Heated empty silica crucible to redness for 10 minutes. Allowed to cooled and weighed. Placed one gram of powder of plants in a silica crucible, treated with Sulfuric acid, ignited again moistened with sulfuric acid, and ignited at about 800°C in a muffle furnace, cooled and weighed. The percentage of sulfated ash was calculated.

**Moisture and Volatilities**: About 5 – 6 g of *A. indica* Linn leaves*, vitex nigundo* Linn leaves, *Argemone Mexicana* Linn leaves, and *Trigonella foenum graecum* Linn seeds were accurately weighed in a petri dish and kept in a hot air oven at 110°C for 4 hours. After cooling in a desiccator, the loss in weight was recorded in each case. This procedure was repeated until a constant weight was obtained. Moisture and Volatilities (%) = Loss in weight x 100 W, W = Weight of the leaves in grams.

**Determination of foreign organic matter in plant samples:** Foreign organic matter means the material not collected during collection from an original plant source. Insects, molds, or any other contaminated material is considered as foreign organic matter. Procedure: 500 gm of crude collected drug taken and evenly spread on a clean tile. Then visually inspect the sample with eyes and separate the foreign matter if any [14–17].

**Morphologic evaluation:** After authentification, all plants are subjected for morphological parameters like color, odor, taste, size, shape, etc. The results are recorded in **Table 3**.

