Classification of yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis) according to the country of origin based on element concentrations

Yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis), a widely consumed beverage in South America, is now also used worldwide. This study deals with a novel approach of characterization and identification of yerba mate. Fifty four samples of yerba mate from Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay were analyzed. A method was developed for determination of Al, Ba, Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, P, Sr and Zn using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP OES), and Li, Be, Ti, V, Cr, Ni, Co, As, Se, Rb, Mo, Ag, Cd, Sb, La, Ce, Pb, Bi and U using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Principal component analysis (PCA), k-nearest neighbor (KNN), soft independent modeling class analogy (SIMCA), partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), and support vector machine discriminant analysis (SVM-DA) were used for multivariate analysis of the element concentrations found, in order to classify the yerba mate according to the country of origin. For all analyzed samples, the classification was 100% correct by means of SVM-DA when all investigated and detected elements (24) were considered.