Chapter 1

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of study

Vegetable any plant part consumed for food that is not a fruit or seed, but

including mature fruits that are eaten as part of a main meal. Vegetables are an

important part of human's diet since they contain protein, vitamins,

carbohydrates, iron, calcium and other nutrients (Ivey, Lejeune, & Miller, 2012).

In Asia, especially thedeveloping countries people consume more vegetable than

themeat. So, the intake of vegetables has become the main source of the

nutrients. Recently, concern has been raised about possibleheavy metals

contamination in plants.Vegetables contain many carbohydrates, proteins,

vitamins, minerals, and trace elements, and these nutrients are important

components of the human diet (Khan et al., 2008b; Zhuanget al., 2009; Amin et

al., 2013). Since the vegetable is an important dietary source of essential

nutrients, may also contain elevated concentrations of heavy metals due to high

transfer into the harvested organ (Wiesler, 2012)

Heavy metal contamination of vegetables causes great concerns as human health

awareness is improved. The most common heavy metals detected in the


vegetables are Cu, Zn, Mn, Co and Mo act as micronutrients for the growth of

animals and human beings when present in trace quantities, whereas others such

as Cd, As, and Cr act as carcinogens (Feiget al., 1994; Trichopoulos, 1997).

Dietary intake of heavy metals also poses risk to animals and human health.

Heavy metals such as Cd and Pb have been shown to have carcinogenic effects

(Trichopoulos, 1997). High concentrations of heavy metals (Cu, Cd and Pb)

vegetables were related to high prevalence of upper gastrointestinal cancer

(Turkdoganet al., 2002).

The concentration of heavy metals in plants dependson the species, cultivar,

growth stage, and organ of the plant,the concentration and bioavailability of

heavy metals in thesoil (strongly influenced by soil pH), and

environmentalconditions. Contaminations of heavy metals in vegetables areraised

by manyways, such as irrigation water, industrial emissions, the harvesting

process, storage and at the point of sale. For the developingcountries, the

industrial emissions might be the primary pollutionpathway (Jiang, Shi, &Feng,

2006).Vegetables take up heavy metals and accumulate them in their edible parts

(Sipteret al., 2008; Chary et al., 2008). Since plants take up heavy metals, due to

absorption from both polluted soil and environment, monitoring of their levels in

vegetables is essential for preventing excessive build-up of metals in the food

chain (Stančić Z, et al., 2016).

Heavy metals may affect cellular oxidation state, lipid peroxidation,breaking of

DNA strands, protein expression and folding,degradation in proteasome, protein

interactions, cell cycleand apoptosis; they are persistent and toxic, and
theyaccumulate through the food chain (Parris WEet al., 2002).When consumed

in large quantities, such metals can cause several clinical and physiological

problems to humans (Kumar Sharma et al., 2007; Khan et al.,

2008).Undoubtedly, the high exposure of these metals had negativeeffects to

human health, such as cancers and damage of the nervoussystem (Karalliedde&

Brooke, 2012; Panet al.,2013). Excess Cd can cause kidney stones, while excess

Pb canaffect brain activity in children (Toplanet al.,2004). It is therefore

reasonable to hypothesize that theintake of vegetables containing heavy metals

has the potentialhealth risk to consumers.

According to the recommendation of the report Reliable Evaluation of Low-

Level Contaminations of Food issued by WHO (WHO, 1995). Thus, value of 1/2

LOD was assigned to all results below the LOD, wherethe proportion of<LOD

results is not>60%.Exposure from vegetable was obtained by combining its

consumption data and the heavy metal concentrations of the specificitem and

then dividing by body weight. The average body weight inthis study was

considered as 55.9 kg (Ge, 1992). The meanand 97.5th percentile of the daily

exposure levels were used torepresent the dietary exposure for average and high

consumers,respectively (WHO, 1997).

The health risk index (HI) was calculatedby dividing daily intake of heavy metals

by their safe limits (Cuiet al., 2004).For the health of the consumers, the World

Health Organization (JECFA, 2010a, 2010b) established the provisional

tolerableweekly intake (PTWI) of 21mg/kg bw (equivalent to 3mg/kg bw/day)


for As and 1mg/kg bw for Hg, provisional tolerable monthlyintake (PTMI) of 25

mg/kg bw for Cd. European Food Safety Authority (EFSA,

2010)setthetolerabledailyintakeof1.5mg/kg bw/day for Pb. To appraise the health

risk associated with thesemetals, the health hazard indexes (HIs) were calculated

bydividing daily intake of heavy metals by their reference doses. HIis usually

adopted to assess the health risk to hazard materials in foods (Chen et al., 2011;

Osman et al.,2011). An HI more than 1 is considered as not safefor human health

(USEPA, 2002).

1.2 Significance of the Study

The researchers of this study could give insight regarding the presence of metal

in vegetables where to share with the consumers about the amount of heavy metal

available in the different type of vegetables. Based on the data and result

collected from the previous study, prevention and treatment step can be taken to

prevent any excessive metal detected in vegetable. Hopefully, it will help the

researchers to discover more new findings regarding the contamination of heavy

metals in Malaysian vegetables.


1.3 Problem Statement

Heavy metal contamination in the vegetable is the major problem where the

contamination can occur during the agronomic process and soil and atmospheric

contamination poses a threat to its quality and safety. The excess of heavy metals

may affects the shelf life of the leafy vegetable itself and also catalysed the

production of hydroperoxide, aldehyde, ketone and acid that can be carcinogenic

and caused digestion irritation to human.

Reliable methods for detection of heavy metal contamination in vegetable oil

sample need to be researched and established in order to detect the heavy metal

and one of the method to be explored is by using ICP and wet digestion with

sulphuric acid, sodium peroxide and acid anhydride as a sample pre-treatment in

order to extract the heavy metals.

1.4 Objective of Study

The objective of this project is to investigate and determine the presence of


heavy metals in some of the highly consumed vegetables . The specific
objectives of the project include:-
1. To compare heavy metal in organic and traditional vegetables using wet

digestion method and ICP. The wet digestion method uses nitric acid,

hydrogen peroxide and sulphuric acid to extract the metal that contains in

vegetable and analysed by Induction Couple Plasma (ICP).

2. To compare heavy metal content in organic and traditional vegetables with

World Health Organization (WHO) and food act requirement.

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