PJB-2018-248
Analysis of Nickel and Lead contents in some vegetables from selected road sides areas
Fazal Mabood
Abstract
Vegetables and crops cultivated near roads absorb toxic metals from polluted soil, and enter into human body through consumption. These toxic chemicals emitted by vehicles and contaminate the soil. Such toxic metals cause serious health problem to human. For this purpose some vegetables and soil were collected from various localities of District Swat, Pakistan and checked the lead (Pb) and nickel (Ni) concentration in it. Four plants species i.e. Rumex dentatus, Trachyspermum ammi, Spinacea oleracea and Allium cepa were selected. Soil and plants samples were collected from four different zones on the basis of distance from road (0-10, 10-40, 40-80, 80-120 meters) at each locality. The result shows that lead concentration was higher in plants located at the distance between 0-10 meters from road side than WHO permissible limit. In such plants the lead concentration was higher than nickel. Rumex dentatus possessed the highest concentration of lead among the plants while nickel concentration was highest in Trachyspermum ammi as compared to other plants. Concentration and accumulation of both the metals decreased in soil and plants with increasing distance from road. Further study is recommended to evaluate the toxic metals in other crops species.
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