Phosphorus, iron, manganese, zinc and copper in relation to total flavonoids in medicinal herbs and their infusions originating from Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine / Fosfor, żelazo, mangan, cynk i miedź w relacji do sumy flawonoidów w ziołach leczniczych i naparach pochodzących z Polski, Litwy i Ukrainy

The aim of the investigation was is to identify differences in an elemental composition (P, Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu) and their total flavonoids contents of medicinal herbs originating from 9 botanical species, harvested in Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine. Metallic elements were determined by FAAS technique in mg∙kg^-1 of dry weight (d. wt) in the order: Fe > Mn > Zn > Cu in plant materials, and in infusions: Mn > Zn > Fe > Cu. The ratio of water-soluble form to total amount of a metal was as follows: 66.2% for Cu, 22.4% for Mn, 19.7% for Zn and 3.8% for Fe. The contents of P total, P inorganic and total flavonoids were determined by UV/Vis spectroscopic methods. By using of analysis of variance, correlation and cluster analyses it has been shown that a significant impact on the diversity of samples has the genetic factor - belonging to a particular botanical species of medicinal plant. The origin of investigated plants proved to be statistically significant only in the case of total Fe concentration, which was higher (α < 0.05) for the samples grown in Ukraine. A number of significant correlations was also obtained (r > 0.7) between: P total - P inorganic, Mn total - Mn extractable and Cu total - Cu extractable, also ( r > 0.5) between: total flavonoids - Cu extractable, P total - Cu total, P total - Cu extractable, P inorganic - Zn total. Moreover, comparison of the results of P, Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu determination in infusions of medicinal plants with the norms of RDA has shown that a significant amount (several percentage) of Mn and Cu can be supplemented to human organism with 2 cups of infusions prepared from Helichrysi inforescentia and Hyperici herba.