International comparison of the determination of cadmium and lead in herb: the Comité Consultatif pour la Quantité de Matière (CCQM) pilot study CCQM-P97

A Comité Consultatif pour la Quantité de Matière (CCQM) inter-laboratory comparison program, CCQM-P97, for the analysis of cadmium and lead in Herba Demodii Styracifolii was organized by the Hong Kong Government Laboratory. The objective of the program was to establish comparability of trace metals analysis in herbal matrices amongst the participating national metrology institutes. The arithmetic mean values of the 13 participants were 0.3186 mg kg−1 (RSD = 11.3%) and 1.650 mg kg−1 (RSD = 11.0%) for cadmium and lead, respectively. The participants using double-isotope dilution mass spectrometry technique for their quantification were found to provide similar mean values to those of non-isotope dilution mass spectrometry users. The observation indicated that trace metal analysis in herbal matrices was not method-dependent, but the use of the highest metrological IDMS approach gave a better precision than other routine calibration methods.