Determination of trace metals in vegetables using ICP-MS

Abstract

The aim of this research was to evaluate the total content of heavy metals in selected and frequently ‎used vegetables.  Ten samples of the most common diet vegetables (chard, celery, garden cress, ‎spinach, Egyptian leek, wild mint, spring onion, arum, mallow, sunflower) were collected from the ‎local markets in Erbil, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The heavy metals were extracted from ‎vegetable samples by microwave-assisted acid digestion utilizing nitric acid/hydrogen peroxide, ‎followed by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to determine the ‎concentrations of As, Cd, Cr, Cu and Pb in the samples. The concentration ranges of heavy metals ‎found for the ten types of edible vegetables investigated are as follows (in µg g-1): As, 0.198-0.436; ‎Cd, <LOD-0.396; Cr, 1.653-11.915; Cu, 3.956-17.782 and Pb, 0.244-1.323. The method was ‎validated for total As, Cd, Cr, Cu and Pb extraction by analysing a certified reference material of ‎GBW10015-spinach. From health point of view estimated daily intake and carcinogenic risks of ‎heavy metals were evaluated. Estimated daily intake values of these heavy metals were found to be ‎lower than the maximum tolerable daily intake. This study also shows that the carcinogenic risk for ‎As, Cd, Cr and Pb exceeded the acceptable level. The results of this work recommend that consumers should be more cautious about levels of heavy ‎metals (especially As, Cd, Cr and Pb) in the analysed vegetable samples in order to make sure the ‎vegetable safety for consumers in Erbil city- the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

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