Heavy metals content and health risk assessment of selected leafy plants consumed in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

Leafy plants and vegetables, which are grown and consumed on almost every continent, are vital to the human diet. It is well known that these plants mainly provide trace elements, vitamins, minerals, and fibres (Mateos-Maces et al. 2020, Sarkar et al. 2022. In addition to the nutritional benefits of leafy plants, most of them accumulate higher amounts of heavy metals because they absorb metals in their edible parts (Saleem et al. 2020).Heavy metal accumulation in plants depends on soil and metal types, soil conditions, plant species, growth stages, weather, and environmental factors (Zhang et al. 2020). Leafy plants grown in contaminated soils have a greater chance of accumulating heavy metals than plants grown in uncontaminated soil (Proshad et al. 2020). Anthropogenic activities such as industrial processing and mining are the primary causes of environmental heavy metal pollution. Furthermore, the widespread use of agrochemicals such as metal-based pesticides and fertilisers contributes significantly to the contamination of various plants and vegetables (Briffa et al. 2020, Aloud et al. 2022. Therefore, several studies are directed toward examining heavy metals in leafy plants and their impact on human health. According to numerous toxicological studies, daily consumption of heavy metal-polluted leafy plants can have an adverse effect on the food chain and may have a negative impact on human health, including anaemia, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic problems, psychological disor-