EVALUATION OF SOME HEAVY METALS IN FRUITS

Baba Umar Abba Mustapha, Yakubu Baban Kanada, Goni Chamba, Babagana Mustapha & Abdullahi Muhammed

Department of Science Laboratory Technology, Ramat Polytechnic, Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria

Department of Science Laboratory Technology, Ramat Polytechnic, Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria

Nafdac Area Laboratory, Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria

Department of Science Laboratory Technology, Ramat Polytechnic, Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria

Department of Quantity Survey, Ramat Polytechnic, Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria

Email: babaumar144@yahoo.com  

ABSTRACT

Exposure of heavy metals to human being has risen dramatically in the last 50 years. In today’s urban and industrial society, there is no escaping from exposure to toxic chemicals and heavy metals. Humans are more likely to be exposed to heavy metal contamination from the dust that adheres to edible plants than from bioaccumulation. This is because it is very difficult to wash off all the dust particles from the plant material before ingesting them. The objectives of this experiment were to determine the concentration of heavy metals in some fruits. Based on the findings it was obtained from the elemental analysis of the fruits samples, iron, zinc, cadmium and lead each are having varying concentrations with considerable elemental value which confirmed the importance of these fruits. It was also confirmed that these fruits had great food and importance for human need as source of vitamin C, the fruits can be used in pharmaceutical industries for the production of medicine for treatment of many diseases such as heart disease. It was recommended that the fruits should be taken by human on daily basis, the cultivation and world production should be encouraged and further studies should be carried out of other fruits like pineapple, pawpaw and cashew fruits for heavy metals content.

Keywords: Heavy Metals, Fruits, Toxic Chemicals, Human Being.