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HYPER ACCUMULATION OF HEAVY METALS BY CRUCIFERAECEA VEGETABLES OF SRILANKA

Volume: 8  ,  Issue: 1 , July    Published Date: 23 July 2018
Publisher Name: IJRP
Views: 831  ,  Download: 544

Authors

# Author Name
1 Maran.K
2 Keerthana.K

Abstract

As in most of Asian countries leaf vegetables are the main vegetables in Sri Lanka.  Cultivation of crops in or close to contaminated sites may result in both growth inhibition and tissue accumulation of heavy metals. Some Leafy vegetables have the huge ability to absorb heavy metals and accumulate in plant parts. Therefore, this research was conducted to give detailed information regarding heavy metal accumulation in Crucifereacea vegetables in Sri Lanka and to emphasize the output for heavy metal contamination and samples were tested for Cu, Cr, Zn and Pb accumulation of five leafy vegetables species of family Cruciferaceae namely Brassica oleracea (cabbage), Brassica oleracea(Kohlrabi), Brassica oleracea (cauli flower), Brassica oleracea (collard green) and Raphanus sativus (Raddish). All the samples were collected from market site of Welimada, Dambulla and Jaffna districts. Samples were prepared using dry ashing technique and concentrations of heavy metals were found using Atomic absorption spectrometer. The results revealed that, the estimated concentration of the lead of selected vegetable varieties are greater than the WHO limit for lead intake, the consumption of average amount of these contaminated vegetables may cause health risk for the consumers. The estimated concentration of Cu, Zn and Cr of selected vegetable varieties can be suggested that the consumption of average amount of these contaminated vegetables do not pose a health risk for the consumers as the values obtained are below the WHO limits. This study concludes and the results of statistical analysis show, that heavy metal concentration varied among the test vegetables as well as areas and the consumption of average amounts of these contaminated vegetables poses a health risk for the consumers.

Keywords

  • Cruceferaecea vegetable
  • Hyper accumulation
  • Heavy metals