College of Earth Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun 130061, China

  To assess the indicative function of the fingerprint characteristics of mineral elements for small agricultural producing areas, 20 sets of soil surface samples and corresponding rice samples were collected from Songyuan and Hunchun of Jilin Province, China. Forty-six mineral elements of brown rice, soil, and rice husk were examined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Ten characteristic elements (Li, Ag, Y, Bi, U, Eu, Er, Rb, Mo and As) were identified via multivariate statistics (Variance importance value analysis and rank sum test in SPSS and SIMCA software packages). The correlation of mineral elements in brown rice, soil, and rice husks of the two sample areas was analyzed and regression analysis models of characteristic mineral elements in brown rice were developed. The results indicate that a correlation exists among brown rice, soil, and rice husks in the same area, and the correlation tests using selected elements showed that all correlation coefficients were 0.65 or above. Differences in brown rice were found between different regions. Consequently, brown rice producing areas can be distinguished by the fingerprint characteristics of mineral elements