USE OF PLANT EXTRACT IN THE IDENTIFICATION OF METALLIC ELEMENTS IN AQUEOUS MEDIUM: AN ANALYTICAL APPROACH

Abstract

The world flora and especially the Brazilian flora is rich in plants used as ornaments, teas, plasters and drinks with different applications. In primitive civilizations some plants were already used to dye bodies and paint the walls of caves, under the name nowadays of cave paintings. Brazilian indigenous tribes use plant extracts in the characteristic painting of their bodies, aiming to emphasize their tribal origin. Currently, there is a great interest in understanding the salutary properties of the national flora and the possible applications for modern life. The consumption of natural products and the demand for technologies considered green are in a growing phase, and in this way, plants were used to obtain extracts in order to carry out the identification of metallic elements in an aqueous medium. Ethanol extracts of mint, annatto, turmeric, parsley and rosemary were used, which were used to identify iron, copper, nickel and lead ions. To prove the identification of the element with the extract, the observation procedure in the color changes of the reaction medium and readings by UV-Vis spectrophotometry were used. The results obtained indicate that it is possible to identify the investigated elements in a qualitative way. In this way, it is proposed to use the work developed as a teaching practice in the identification of ions in chemistry laboratory classes.