Evaluation of the heavy metal content of ugu leaf (telfaria occidentalis) collected from eke Okigwe Market, Imo State, Nigeria
International Journal of Development Research
Evaluation of the heavy metal content of ugu leaf (telfaria occidentalis) collected from eke Okigwe Market, Imo State, Nigeria
Received 08th July, 2018; Received in revised form 15th August, 2018; Accepted 06th September, 2018; Published online 30th October, 2018
Copyright © 2018, Amah et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This study evaluated the heavy metal content of ugu leaf (Telfaria occidentalis) collected from Eke Okigwe Market in Imo State, South Eastern Nigeria. The heavy metals including Mercury (Hg), Cadmium (Cd), Manganese (Mn) and Lead (Pb) were analyzed using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS). The results revealed a significantly higher concentrations of Hg, Cd and Mn in T. occidentalis leaf beyond the World Health Organization (WHO) allowable limits of 0.001, 0.003 and 0.1435 mg/100g for Hg, Cd and Mn respectively (P<0.05). However, lead was not detected in the vegetable. The nutritional implication of these high levels of Mercury, cadmium as well as manganese in this vegetable is that consumers may be prone to heavy metals toxicity as a result of regular consumption. Hence, adequate care should be taken in the consumption of this vegetable so as to avoid bioaccumulation of these heavy metals and subsequently, its deleterious effects.
