Abstract: Plants are among the most studied biological objects by means of elemental analysis. Qualitative and quantitative elemental determination (of essential and nonessential elements) in plants is of analytical interest from the very beginning of instrumental methods development since plants are in constant relationship with the environment and anthropogenic activities, thus related to human well-being. High quality consistent sample preparation is a crucial preliminary step in the entire analytical process because of the variety and complexity of biological matrices. In the last twenty years, efforts in analytical method development are increasingly being directed towards clarifying linkages between elemental composition and plant physiology, biochemistry and bioorganic/bioinorganic interactions of elements in plants. ‘Omics’ (like genomics, proteomics, metabolomics or metalomics) studies are nowadays a major instrument of life science, directing analytical attention more to elemental speciation and heteroelements analysis of bound chemical forms in organisms in vivo than just to determine total concentrations. This requires even more attention to sample preparation, extraction, species preservation, and separation before elemental determination. The present work aims to review the most used and approbated sample preparation strategies for biological and mainly plant tissue samples before elemental speciation analysis published during the last decade. The information might be useful to analysts for constructing their own analytical protocols in consistence with their specific study.

Abstract: Biographical data and scientific contributions of newly elected (2014–2015) one full member (academician) and one corresponding member (CM) of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) in the field of chemical sciences are presented: Academician Christo B. Tsvetanov, Professor, DSc of Polymer Chemistry and Technology at the Institute of Polymers, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and CM Vasya S. Bankova, Professor, DSc at the Laboratory of Chemistry of Natural Products at the Institute of Organic Chemistry with Centre of Phytochemistry of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences .