Spectroscopic study of Cu, Mn, Cd as heavy metals in agricultural samples

Abstract

Abstract Heavy elements represent a source of toxicity when accumulate in the soil and be transmitted to plants, animals and humans through food chains that may affect the human and the animal health. In this study, environmental samples, vegetable samples (Cabbage, Mallow, Turnip) and soil, were collected from Qaha in Qaliubia in Egypt then subjected to investigate the availability of toxic metals such as copper, manganese and cadmium using flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (FAAS) technique. We have found Cu, Mn and Cd in cabbage with concentrations around 25.28 ±1.263 ppm, 103.83 ±5.19 ppm and 0.792 ±0.0396 ppm, respectively. The Cu, Mn and Cd concentrations in Mallow were found to be 35.26 ±1.76 ppm, 142.72 ±7.14 ppm and 1.3 ±0.0649 ppm respectively. Also, the concentrations of Cu, Mn and Cd in Turnip have achieved 29.29 ±1.45 ppm, 79.33 ±3.97 ppm and 1.99 ±0.099 ppm respectively. For soil, the concentrations of Cu, Mn and Cd were 2.4 ±0.12 ppm, 4.8 ±0.24 ppm and 1.75 ±0.088 ppm respectively. It was concluded that the pollution index values for Cu, Mn and Cd in soil were 0.024 ±1.2 ×10−3, 0.01 ±5.49 ×10−4and 0.58 ±0.029 respectively. The pollution index values in cabbage for Cu, Mn and Cd were 0.346 ±0.017, 15.708 ±0.785 and 3.96 ±0.198 respectively. The pollution index values for Cu, Mn and Cd in Mallow were 0.073 ±0.024, 21.59 ±1.08 and 6.5 ±0.32 respectively. The pollution index values for Cu, Mn and Cd in Turnip were 0.401 ±0.019, 12 ±0.6 and 9.95 ±0.5 respectively. The observed new results are important to monitor the environmental pollution in the studied samples which have an impact on human health.