Determination of heavy metals in vegetables by using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (LCP-OES) / Tunku Nur Afiifah Afini Tunku Kamaruzaman

The aim of this study was to determine the concentration of heavy
metals (Cu, Ni, Zn, Pb and Cd) in selected vegetables (carrot, mustard
green, calabash, gai lan, long bean, cabbage and cauliflower) using
inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES).
The content of heavy metals in the vegetable then compared with the
standard for allowable amount of toxic heavy metals as set by Joint
World Health organization (WHO)/Food Agricultural Organization
(FAO) and also by the previous studies carried out by other researchers.
The concentrations of heavy metals in vegetables samples were ranged
from 0.01 µg/g to 0.037 µg/g for Ni, 0.05 µg/g to 0.12 µg/g for Cu,
0.06 µg/g to 0.42 µg/g for Pb, 0.1 µg/g to 0.57 µg/g for Zn and the
concentration of Cd was not detected in all tested vegetable samples.
The trend concentration of metals was as follow in vegetables: Zn > Pb
> Cu > Ni > Cd. All heavy metals content obtained in vegetables were
below than the maximum permissible limits as stated in World Health
Organization (WHO) and Food Agricultural Organization (FAO).