The use of microwave muffle furnace for dry ashing plant tissue samples

Resistance muffle furnace dry ashing process is commonly used for plant tissue sample analysis. It takes from four to eight hours to complete the ashing process. A microwave muffle furnace, however, can reduce ashing time to about 20 minutes. Comparisons of the ashing effectiveness between the two techniques were made on six different plant tissue samples. Plant macro‐ and micro‐nutrients were determined by an inductively coupled plasma emission (ICP) spectrometer. Determination of all the major nutrients ashed by the microwave furnace for 40 minutes were comparable to those ashed in conventional muffle furnace for four hours. Results showed that microwave ashing technique can speed up analysis significantly.