DETERMINATION OF HEAVY METALS IN VEGETABLES PROCURED FROM OPEN MARKETS IN BENIN CITY

ABSTRACT

Heavy metals are defined as metallic elements that have a relatively high density compared to water. Consumption of heavy metals through the food chain has been thoroughly documented worldwide. The aim of this work is to assess the quality of vegetables sold in open market by assessing the level of heavy metal in them. All the samples were procured from open markets; Uselu market, Santana market, and Oba Market in Benin City. Leafy vegetables which include pumpkin leaf, green leaf, shoko, and water leaf. The plant samples were air dried for 3 days and then pulverized to fine powder. Digestion process was carried out according to standard methods. Results from this study has reveals that the values of Pb, Cd, Zn, Cr and Fe for pumpkin leaves varies from 0.003 to 0.64 (mg/kg), for green vegetables from 0.003 to 0.60 (mg/kg), for shoko leaves 0.003 to 0.520 (mg/kg) and for water leaves 0.010 to 0.750 (mg/kg) respectively and they were all generally lower than the WHO/FAO maximum permissive limits while Cd was not detected in nearly all the samples. Analysis of the data by variance to correlate market location to heavy metal concentrations in vegetables species showed that the difference in concentrations are statistically insignificant (p>0.05).