RESUMO
Objective: To provide the new quality control means for Alumen by investigating the elemental differences between calcined Alumen and its counterfeit processed products of ammonium alum, and establishing their characteristic chromatogram. Method: The contents of 22 inorganic elements both in calcined Alumen and processed products of ammonium alum were determined by means of inductively coupled plasma (ICP)-optical emission spectrometer-mass spectrometry (ICP-OES/ICP-MS),SPSS 16.0 was used for cluster analysis (CA) while SIMCA-P 13.0 with t-test and Rank-Sum test was used to identify the differential inorganic elements. In addition, the characteristic spectrum of the inorganic elements for calcined Alumen and counterfeit calcined alumen were established. Result: Calcined Alumen had highest contents of K and Al while counterfeit calcined Alumen has highest contents of Al and Fe;Cr,Sr,and Mn contents in calcined Alumen were relatively higher,while Mn,Ti,and Ga contents in processed products of ammonium alum were relatively higher. The content of K in calcined Alumen was about 205 times of that of counterfeit products. On the contrary,the average contents of Fe,Ti,Mn and Ga in counterfeit products of ammonium alum were much higher than those in calcined Alumen,33,46,38, 27 times, respectively. A total of 18 samples were clustered into two categories in CA:calcined Alumen and processed products of ammonium alum. 18 inorganic elements showed significant difference in contents(PConclusion: This method can be used for quality control of calcined Alumen.