A Market Survey of Vegetables in Bangalore for Heavy Metal Contamination in Relation to Human Health

Abstract

Vegetable samples from one of the main whole sale markets of Bangalore city were collected over two years and analysed for heavy metals such as Cd, Pb, Cr and Ni. Heavy metal content of vegetables ranged from 0.24 to 2.54 mg Cd kg^-1, 2.16 to 10.40 mg Pb kg^-1, 3.08 to 16.2 mg Cr kg^-1 and 1.66 to 11.52 mg Ni kg^-1. Leafy vegetables accumulated higher concentration of heavy metals followed by root vegetables. Fruit vegetables accumulated the lowest content of heavy metals. But the heavy metal content of all the vegetables crossed the safe limits permitted for human consumption to a far greater extent except that Cd content of root and fruit vegetables were within the safe levels. Among leafy vegetables, amaranthus and palak accumulated the highest content of all the four heavy metals studied.