Heavy metal content of edible plants collected close to an area of intense mining activity (southern Portugal)

Abstract

The Neves-Corvo mining complex (MC) situated in southern Portugal exploits one of the most world's important copper deposits. Agricultural soils surrounding the MC, used by the inhabitants for crop production, contain excessive amounts of As, Cu, Pb, and Zn. Thus, a potential risk to human consumption exists if edible plants grow on these substrata. Arsenic and Pb were not detected in edible samples collected near the MC and 5 km away, but in the leaves-structural or adsorbed onto the surface. In general, Zn was the most mobile element in both contaminated and reference areas as seen by the bioaccumulation factors (BAF). The tolerable upper intake (TUI) values for Cu are a reason of concern, since in 57.1% of the cases, the TUI values are above the recommended upper limit of 5 mg/day, in the case of Ficus carica, Cucurbita pepo, and Phaseolus vulgaris, whereas in 28.6% of the cases, the TUI values are near this limit (C. pepo and Citrus x sinensis). The consumption of such vegetables from these areas must be banned or strongly reduced, since long-term accumulation of Cu can cause a chronic toxicity in humans.

Development of a new bread type supplemented iron and folic acid– Chemical and technological characterization

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Elemental Composition of Algae-Based Supplements by Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence

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Elemental Composition and Some Nutritional Parameters of Sweet Pepper from Organic and Conventional Agriculture

“…Furthermore the evaluation of the mineral content of several edible products or even food supplements is paramount, since it allow us to monitor the enrichment or the poorness of essential elements to human nutrition and metabolism, or even detect possible contamination by heavy metals such as Cd, Pb, and Hg, among others [ 8 , 9 , 10 ]. In this context it is also useful to perform an acute characterization of the soil since potential redox, cation exchange capacity and particularly pH influences decisively affect the solubility and/or availability of the nutrients and the uptake by plants [ 11 , 12 , 13 ], beyond intrinsic aspects of the plants—that is, mainly related to species, varieties, development status and metabolic requirements, as well as to possible abiotic stresses that may occur [ 14 , 15 ].…”