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Abstract
The nutritional constitution of plants, and specifically of their seeds or
grains, depends on factors such as the variety, the climate, the agronomic
management and the mineral composition of the soil where they are
cultivated. Although Mexico is a coffee producing country, there are few
comparative studies exploring the effect of the place where grains are
grown on the quality of coffee beans. In this study, the concentration of
macronutrients (N, P, K, Ca, Mg and S) and micronutrients (B, Cu, Fe, Mn,
Ni and Zn) in coffee beans of the Robusta variety (Coffea canephora), from
three different countries, Mexico, Brazil, and Vietnam, was determined
by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES),
with the exception of N, for which the semi-micro Kjeldahl method was
used. The results obtained show that, with the exception of N, there is a
variation in the concentrations of mineral elements among the grains of
the regions studied. Samples from Mexico presented values above 50%
in P, Ca, K and Mg; and more than 100% in Fe, Mn and Zn with respect
to coffee beans from Brazil and Vietnam.
