Heavy Metal Accumulation in Vegetables and Assessment of their Potential Health Risk Abdul Latif 1* , Muhammad Bilal 2 , Waleed Asghar 3 , Muhammad Azeem 4 , Muhammad Irfan Ahmad 5 , Asad Abbas 6 , Muhammad Zulfiqar Ahmad 7 and Toufeeq Shahzad 8 1 School of Resources and Environment, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, Anhui, China 2 Department of Agriculture, Soil and Water Testing Laboratory for Research, Dera Ghazi Khan, Punjab, Pakistan 3 School of Environment Sciences, Beijing Normal University, 100875, Beijing China 4 Department of Agriculture, Hazara Univeristy, Mansehra, KP, Pakistan 5 School of Agronomy, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, Anhui, China 6 School of Horticulture, Anhui Agriculture University, Hefei, China 7 State Key Lab of Tea Plant Biology and Utilization, College of Tea and Food science and Technology, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, China 8 School of Life Sciences, Anhui Agriculture University, Hefei, China * Corresponding author: Abdul Latif, School of Resources and Environment, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, Anhui, China, Tel: 008618256535512; E-mail: farhanqais@yahoo.com Received date: March 20, 2018; Accepted date: March 30, 2018; Published date: April 03, 2018 Copyright: © 2018 Latif A, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Abstract Vegetables constitute essential diet components by contributing carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, iron, calcium and other nutrients that are in short supply. The present study was conducted to evaluate vegetables such as leafy (spinach), melon (gourd, long gourd and pumpkin) and solonaceous (brinjal) for their potential to accumulate different heavy metals like Cadmium (Cd), Manganese (Mn), Chromium (Cr), Copper (Cu), Iron (Fe), Nickel (Ni), Lead (Pb) and Zinc (Zn). The content of these metals was measured by using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. Mean values were recorded against each vegetable for accumulating heavy metals. It was observed that maximum concentration of Mn (137.3 mg/kg), Cr (6.62 mg/kg) and Fe (968.25 mg/kg) was found in spinach, exceeding the allowed threshold 2.2 mg/kg, 2.3 mg/kg and 425 mg/kg respectively, as set by WHO/FAO. While melon showed great potential to absorb Ni (5.05 mg/kg) which elevated safe limit 0.1 mg/kg and Cu (65 mg/kg) was within the safe range. Brinjal displayed maximum absorption of Zn (41 mg/kg), which did not cross the WHO reference limit 73 mg/kg. In case of Cd both gourd and brinjal showed equal concentration of 0.39 mg/kg but was not at the safe limit 0.241 mg/kg. However levels of Pb were below the FAO/WHO recommended limits in all the vegetables. Low concentrations of Pb indicate that these plants contribute less toxic effects of metals. Overall this order of absorption was recorded as leafy˃melon˃solonaceous. Human DIM has also been computed and was observed below recommended values by the FAO/WHO. However, to prevent any chronic health risk and extent of heavy metal contamination, steps must be taken to reduce human activities at the sites. Regular monitoring of heavy metals in the vegetables grown in wastewater irrigated areas is also necessary. Keywords: Heavy metals; Sewage water; Health risk; WHO/FAO limits; Daily intake Abbreviations: AAS: Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer; DIM: Daily Intake of Metals; PDTI: Provisional Tolerable Daily Intake; HRI: Health Risk Index. Introduction Vegetables are basic eating routine taken by populations all through the world, being wellsprings of fundamental supplements, antioxidants agents and metabolites. Tey likewise go about as bufering specialists for acid substance obtained during the digestion process. However, both essential and toxic components are available in vegetables over an extensive variety of concentrations as they are said to be great absorber of metals from the soil [1]. Te metals pollute the soil and mix with soil solution and enter into the plant body and hence can be accumulated at high levels in the edible parts of vegetables, even low levels in soil [2]. Diferent plants accumulate its diferent concentration. Some accumulate more than others. Vegetables being carrier of metals, when taken up by human beings, get ingested into human body. Heavy metals can be exceptionally unsafe to the human body even in low concentrations as there is no powerful excretion mechanism [3]. Tese metals are deadly dangerous for human health and cause cancer, liver, heart and many other problems. Some general dangerous impacts of overwhelming metals are hepatic damaging, renal system damaging, mental retardation, CNS breakdown, looseness of the bowels, hookworm disease and degeneration of basal ganglia of brain and liver [4]. Unnecessary take-up of dietary overwhelming metals may bring about various genuine medical issues in people. In addition, the utilization of sustenance polluted with metals can truly drain some basic nutrients in the body which causes a depletion of immunological resistances, intrauterine development hindrance, incapacities related with ailing health and a high commonness of upper gastrointestinal cancer [5]. Metals can pose as a signifcant health risk to humans, particularly in elevated concentrations above the very low body requirements. Heavy metals can be very harmful to the human body J o u r n a l o f E n v i r o n m e n t a l A n a l y t i c a l C h e m i s t r y ISSN: 2380-2391 Journal of Environmental Analytical Chemistry Latif et al., J Environ Anal Chem 2018, 5:1 DOI: 10.4172/2380-2391.1000234 Research Article Open Access J Environ Anal Chem, an open access journal ISSN: 2380-2391 Volume 5 • Issue 1 • 1000234