Multivariate data analysis of natural mineral waters

Fifty samples of natural mineral waters from springs in Slovenia, Hungary, Germany, Czech Republic and further countries of former Yugoslavia have been analysed. The mass concentration of cations ($Na^+$, $K^+$, $Ca^{2+}$, $Mg^{2+}$, $Fe^{2+}$, $Mn^{2+}$, $NH^+_4$) and anions ($F^-$, $Cl^-$, $I^-$, $NO^-_3$, $SO_4^{2-}$, $HCO_3^-$), the spring temperature, pH, conductivity and carbon dioxide mass concentration have been measured using standard analytical methods. Appropriate statistical methods and different chemometric tools were used to evaluate the obtained data, namely, (i) descriptive statistics, (ii) principal component analysis (PCA), (iii) cluster analysis, and (iv) linear discriminant analysis (LDA). It was confirmed that Slovenian natural mineral water samples differ most from the German ones but are relatively similar to the Czech and Hungarian ones. Water samples from Hungary are similar to waters from the eastern part of Slovenia.Analizirali smo petdeset vzorcev naravne mineralne vode iz izvirov v Sloveniji, na Madžarskem, v Nemčiji, Češki republiki in državah bivše Jugoslavije. Masne koncentracije kationov ($Na^+$, $K^+$, $Ca^{2+}$, $Mg^{2+}$, $Fe^{2+}$, $Mn^{2+}$, $NH^+_4$) in anionov ($F^-$, $Cl^-$, $I^-$, $NO^-_3$, $SO_4^{2-}$, $HCO_3^-$), temperaturo izvira, pH, prevodnost in masno koncentracijo ogljikovega dioksida smo določili z uporabo standardnih analiznih metod. Uporabili smo primerne statistične in kemometrijske metode za evalvacijo podatkov: (i) opisno statistiko, (ii) analizo glavnih komponent (PCA), (iii) analizo klastrov in (iv) linearno diskriminantno analizo (LDA). Potrdili smo, da se slovenske mineralne vode razlikujejo predvsem od nemških in da so sorazmerno podobne češkim in madžarskim. Vzorci vode iz Madžarske so podobni tistim iz vzhodne Slovenije