A rapid method of determination of total N, P and K in a single digest of fresh leaf material of Hevea

A rapid method of analysis was tested using 2 mL of concentrated H2SO4 and 5 mL of 30% H2O2 in Vigruex fractionating head for digestion of fresh leaf material of Hevea. It took much less time for digestion of each leaf sample. The t-test indicated that variance and means of N, P and K recovered from rapid peroxide and routine wet oxidation digests were not significantly different from each other. Similarly, there were no significant differences between variances and means of colorimetry and distillation methods of N determination. It suggested that colorimetry could be a better alternative to distillation to save time. It was clear from the present study that this method was rapid, recovery was complete and on par with conventional leaf analysis and permits estimation of N, P and K from a single extract.