Dilute hydrochloric acid extraction of plant material for routine cation analysis

Abstract A hazard‐free method of extracting cations from dried plant material using dilute (0.5M) hydrochloric acid has been developed for routine determination of cations in dried plant samples. Previous work1,2 has shown that hydrochloric acid can be used to quantitatively extract cations but the methods are slow and tedious. To develop a faster and less tedious method it was first necessary to ascertain the sensitivity of hydrochloric acid extraction to changes in conditions.