Studies on some heavy metal contents of ximenia americana and sclerocarya birrea wild fruit from North-Eastern Nigeria.

Abstract

Fruits play important role in providing the individuals daily dietary needs from vitamins, iron, and some metals that are needed in the body as dietary supplement or as an important element that form some hormones or enzymes in small concentrations, if exists in high concentrations become toxic with side effects. The presence of heavy metals such as of Fe, Cd, Pb, Cr, Mn, Ni, Co, and Zn in Ximenia americana and sclerocarya birrea wild fruits were determined using standard methods such as AAS. Results obtained from this study revealed that the concentration of the metals in sclerocarya birrea was Iron, (8.83 ± 0.10) Cadmium (0.01 ± 0.00) Lead (0.04 ± 0.02) Chromium (0.19±0.10) Manganese (4.27 ± 0.20) Nickel (0.21 ±0.10) Cobalt (0.09 ±0.01) and Zinc (2.96 ± 0.02) mg/g. On the other hand, Ximenia americana content was Iron, (6.37 ± 0.10) Cadmium (0.02 ± 0.01) Lead (0.01 ± 0.00) Chromium (0.24±0.01) Manganese (2.50 ± 0.10) Nickel (0.29 ±0.10) Cobalt (0.17 ±0.00) and Zinc (2.31 ± 0.06) mg/g respectively. Highest concentration of Iron was recorded as (8.83 ± 0.10) mg/g in the sclerocarya birrea sample analyzed, while Lead and Cadmium were found to be the least with concentration of (0.01 ±0.00) mg/g in both samples. Their concentrations are within the maximum allowable concentration (MAC) set by FAO/WHO. The findings of this study reveal that there are no health risks associated with the consumption of heavy metals through the intake of these two fruits.