62
Views
4
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
ATOMIC SPECTROSCOPY

Elemental Analysis and Metal Intake of Romanian Vegetables

, , &
Pages 2755-2771 | Received 23 Sep 2016, Accepted 14 Nov 2016, Published online: 21 Aug 2017
 

ABSTRACT

Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry multielemental profiling was performed to determine eight elements in 54 vegetable samples. The range of concentrations of Fe and Ni was 1.91 ± 0.09 to 443.31 ± 22.32 mg/kg and 0.05 ± 0.004 to 16.36 ± 0.36 mg/kg, respectively. The concentrations of Pb and Cd were up to 1.56 ± 0.04 and 0.78 ± 0.04 mg/kg, respectively. Some samples exceeded the maximum admissible limits imposed by national and international regulations. The mean concentrations of Mn and Cu were between 20.93 ± 0.43 and 13.98 ± 0.30 mg/kg in tomatoes and 20.60 ± 0.53 and 11.25 ± 0.22 mg/kg in peppers. For the evaluation of health risk related to the consumption of vegetables, the daily intake rate, target hazard quotient (THQ), and hazard index were evaluated. The daily intakes were low and correspond to 2 to 14% of the tolerable daily values established by legislation. The results showed that the THQ and hazard index for the metals were lower than 1, indicating that the vegetable ingestion does not represent a significant risk for consumer health. Analysis of variance revealed that Zn may be used as a species-specific marker (p = 0.026). Principal component analysis extracted three main components, explaining a total variance of 72.49% and grouped all determined elements.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.