Concentración de macronutrimentos y micronutrimentos en granos de café (coffea sp.) De diferentes orígenes

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.