Organic matter, total carbon and nitrogen contents were determined in the soil samples collected from three different districts of El-Fayoum Governorate. Fe, Mn, Cu and Zn were extracted from the investigated soils by DTPA and Na4P2O7-NaOH mixture.
Also, iron content associated with humic and fulvic acids were determined. The investigated soils were characterized by low content of organic matter and hence the total carbon. However, the total carbon contents and total Fe of humic acids predominated over fulvic acid in samples under investigation.
Furthermore, fulvic acid have infrared characteristics rather similar to humic acid except for the following differences: (a) absorption band at 2850 cm-1 disappeared in humic acid (b) Strong absorption band at 1400 cm-1 was noticed for fulvic acid, while humic acid showed a weak band at the same region.