Determination of CR, CD, and ZN in local vegetables using atomic absorption spectrometric technique / Nor Zahartini Zakaria

Each plants species has its nutritive requirements different from others. Thus different plants have similar nutritive environment will contain minor and macro elements of different concentrations. The main objectives of the study are to identify the heavy metals present in the samples using Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS). In this experiment, three samples of vegetables were obtained from wet market in Shah Alam which were spinach, water spinach, and mustard leaves and was characterized using Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS). Mustard leaf has highest total concentration of metals where the value was 0.3348 mg/g. Concentration of Cr and Cd were highest in spinach and mustard leaf and exceeded the safe limit by FAO/WHO (Codex Alimentarius Commission. 1984) standards. Concentration of Zn in water spinach at leafy and stem part were 0.0506 mg/g and 0.0276 mg/g and did not exceeded the safe limit. The study suggested that to reduce the health risk, vegetables should be washed properly to reduce the concentration of heavy metals. Government should pay more attention about this problem and alternatives should be taken to overcome this kind of problems. Farmer should be aware to surroundings and should bother about production sites and try to minimizing the factors present.