ABSTRACT
Boron is a light, nonmetallic element known to be essential for vascular plants, diatoms, and some species of marine algal flagellates. Advances in analytical capabilities have prompted renewed interest in determining the essentiality of boron for humans. Dietary boron also influences the concentrations of several minerals in the hearts of vitamin D-deprived rats. In humans, dietary boron influences serum ionized calcium concentrations as well as the urinary excretion of calcium. Glass nebulizers, which convert a liquid sample into an aerosol in, for example, an inductively coupled plasma spectrophotometer should be replaced with nebulizers made of specialized plastics, Teflon, polypropylene and platinum, or quartz. Boron analysis by colorimetric methods requires extraction of the boron-ligand complex prior to spectrophotometric or fluorimetric analysis. Discovery of physiological effects of dietary boron restriction in chicks, rats, and humans has prompted efforts to assess boron metabolism and the effects of dietary boron on mineral metabolism.
