Contamination Levels of Some Heavy Metals in Selected Vegetables Grown in Urmar Bala of District Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Keywords:
Heavy metals, Vegetables, Lagenaria siceraria, Solanum melongena, Abelmoschus esculentus, Luffa acutangula, Lead (Pb), Chromium (Cr), Nickel (Ni), Iron (Fe), Cadmium (Cd), Centralized Resource laboratory (CRL)Abstract
The levels of Cr, Pb, Fe, Ni and Cd have been assessed in edible part of selected vegetables: Bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria), Aubergine (Solanum melongena), Lady Finger (Abelmoschus esculentus) and Regde gourd (Luffa acutangula). The range of heavy metals in samples are as: Chromium (Cr) is 0.00 mg/kg in all vegetable samples: Lead (Pb) is from 6.4 mg/kg to 1.35 mg/kg, Iron (Fe) is from 56.45 mg/kg to 31.15 mg/kg, Nickel (Ni) concentration (19.5mg/kg) found only in lady finger (Abelmoschus esculentus), Cadmium (Cd) in the range of 0.75 to 0.6mg/kg. Heavy metals concentration in selected vegetables is in the order of: Aubergine (Solanum melongena) (Pb > Fe > Cd), Bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) (Fe > Cd), Lady Finger (Abelmoschus esculentus) (Fe > Ni > Pb) and Regde gourd (Luffa acutangula) (Fe > Pb). The trend revealed that concentrations of Fe were found maximum in all vegetables except Aubergine (Solanum melongena). When compared with standards, the levels of iron and nickel were found below, but lead and cadmium above their maximum permissible limits according to guidelines set by FAO/WHO.
