Overview
Assaad and colleagues measured 11 elements by ICP-OES in the edible parts of the vegetables used in Tabbouli salad (parsley, peppermint, tomato, onion, olive, lemon and bulgur) and in their allotment soils in Lebanon, collected in spring 2018. Table 4 gives one dry-weight value per plant. Soil pseudototal and mobile fractions and transfer factors are also reported.
Key numbers
- Lead (mg/kg DM): parsley 5.1, bulgur 15.3, lemon 23.5, olive 53.8, onion 44.8, peppermint 13.9, tomato 16.6 (Table 4, p. 160).
- Cadmium (mg/kg DM): parsley 0.8, bulgur 0.8, lemon 0.7, olive 0.4, onion 0.5, peppermint 1.4, tomato 1.3 (Table 4).
- Arsenic (mg/kg DM): onion 5.1, peppermint 6.2, tomato 6.6; parsley 0.9 (Table 4).
Methods (brief)
Edible parts washed, oven dried at 45 °C, ground in an agate mill, microwave digested with HNO3/H2O2 (6:1) and analysed by ICP-OES at the University of Portsmouth. Triplicate analysis and blanks; a plant reference material with recovery near 100% is mentioned without its name; soil reference materials NIST SRM 2709, 2711a and BCR-483/484.
Evidence Fitness
Single values per plant from three allotments, with no sample counts or dispersion. Lead values of 5 to 54 mg/kg DM are very high for vegetables, and iron values of 1 to 4 mg/kg DM are unusually low relative to the other elements, so analytical quality is uncertain. Table 6 contains a cucumber row identical to parsley although cucumber was not sampled. The tomato and onion data are ingredient proxies for the barbecue-sauce and ranch-dressing pages, which are not linked; no sauce or dressing was measured.