use Data::Dumper;
use XML::Simple;

my $xml= <<EOXML ;
<rec id = 'F600' type = 'J'>
<author>A. S. B&#245;mmarius, K. Drauz, W. Hummel, M.-R. Kula, C. Wandrey</author>
<text>&lt; &amp; &ge; &#242; &plusmn;</text>
</rec>
EOXML
$xmlref = XMLin($xml);