تراكيز المعادن الثقيلة في الخضراوات الورقية في محافظتي بيت لحم وجنين
Date
2018-01-17
Authors
اليزابيث شارلي يوسف قطان
Elizabeth Charly Yousef Kattan
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
AL-Quds University
جامعة القدس
جامعة القدس
Abstract
Leafy vegetables are an edible plant leaves. This kind of vegetables are rich in vitamins and
nutrients. However, leafy vegetables should not contain heavy metals over a range of
concentrations which could pose potential health risk to the consumers. Contamination with
heavy metals is considered to be an environmental issue as these metals are toxic even at low
concentrations. This study was conducted to determine heavy metals concentration in leafy
vegetables in two regions in the West Bank which are Bethlehem and Jenin districts. Thus,
vegetable samples, particularly spinach, arugula, and parsley, had been collected from different
farms from both regions, and analysed for different heavy metals (Fe, Pb, Cr, Co, Cu, Mn, Cd,
and Zn) by using ICP-MS. For some samples, the results were found to be exceeding WHO/FAO
permissible limit for human consumption, while other samples were found to be within the safe
allowable limit. Fe was found to be the highest in concentration while Mn and Co were the
lowest. Pb and Zn concentrations varied between high and low, then comes Cr, Cu, and Cd. Soil
samples in addition to irrigation water samples had been also analysed for their content of heavy
metals in order to correlate the environmental factors to heavy metal contamination. However,
all concentrations were below the limit set by WHO/FAO. Thus it was concluded that the
contamination found in leafy vegetables samples was not related to either irrigation water or soil.
Furthermore, some pesticides samples were analysed as well, where in fact the contamination
with heavy metals was found. Thus, it was concluded that contamination of leafy vegetables with
heavy metals was directly related to usage of pesticides. As a result, the elevated levels of metals
in vegetables in the two regions was attributed to utilization of pesticides
Description
Keywords
الدراسات البيئية , Environmental Studies