Bua et al. 2016 — Cd, Hg, As, and Pb in aromatic spices traded in Italy

Bua and colleagues measured Cd, Hg, As, and Pb in seven aromatic spice samples traded in the Italian market. Samples included cinnamon, curcuma, and ginger from multiple declared origins and were analyzed by microwave-assisted digestion followed by ICP-MS. The paper reports total As and total Hg only, not inorganic arsenic or methylmercury. The current ingredient taxonomy includes spices, cinnamon, and turmeric; ginger-specific values are retained in the matrix notes because ginger is not in the snapshot.

Key numbers

Table 4 reports range and mean ± SD values in mg Kg-1, dw:

Additional source-reported values:

• Table 4 average range: Cd 0,029-0,294; Hg < 0.010-0,851; As 0,007-0,701; Pb 0,164-2,923.
• Table 4 average concentration: Cd 0,110±0,093; Hg 0,178±0,292; As 0,192±0,251; Pb 0,902±0,747.
• LOD/LOQ values from Table 2 were As 0,015/0,052 ng g-1, Cd 0,008/0,021 ng g-1, Pb 0,010/0,042 ng g-1, and Hg 0,010/0,035 ng g-1.
• The authors state that no investigated heavy metal exceeded the Italian L.D. no.107 or FAO/WHO maximum levels in any tested sample.
• Risk assessment assumed spice intake of 0,2 g day-1 for an adult with body weight 70 Kg.
• The paper reports TWI/PTWI/BMDL exceedance percentages for several spice/origin rows: cinnamon from Vietnam exceeded Cd TWI at 151% and Pb BMDL 01 at 431,2%; Japanese ginger exceeded As BMDL 01 at 663-24,8% and Pb BMDL 01 at 219%; Sri Lankan curcuma exceeded the relevant values for each investigated metal.

Methods (brief)

Seven samples of three spices were randomly purchased from local Italian markets and classified by scientific name, plant part, and origin. Each dry spice sample aliquot was 0,25 g and was milled with a Teflon mortar. One mL of Re internal standard was added before digestion with 10 mL HNO3 in PTFE vessels using a microwave digestion system. Metals were quantified by Agilent 7500cx ICP-MS using external calibration, internal standards, helium collision gas, and five replicate determinations. Method validation used calibration curves, LOD/LOQ, repeatability, intermediate precision, and NIST-1570a spinach leaves. The paper reports total As and total Hg only.

Implications

This source contributes Italy-market occurrence evidence for Cd, Pb, total As, and total Hg in imported aromatic spices. It is useful for the spices product page and for ingredient-level context on cinnamon and turmeric/curcuma; ginger needs to remain matrix-only unless a ginger ingredient slug is later added. The source is not suitable for inorganic arsenic or methylmercury pooling because it reports total elements only.

Wiki pages this source may touch

• spices
• cinnamon
• turmeric
• spices
• cadmium
• mercury-total
• arsenic-total
• lead

Verification notes

• PDF text extracted with pdftotext -layout; the extracted text contained the title/DOI page, methods, Tables 1-5, discussion, conclusion, and references.
• DOI verified from the PDF title page as 10.1080/19393210.2016.1175516; DOI, raw-handle, and cite-key checks found no existing source page before creation.
• Table 4 and Table 5 values were checked against the extracted text. The source uses decimal commas; this page preserves those printed values and the source unit mg Kg-1, dw.
• Speciation: arsenic is total As and mercury is total Hg. The source does not report iAs or MeHg.
• Internal consistency: a few Table 4 mean values appear below the printed range for the same row, such as Cinnamon (Indonesia) As mean 0,019 against range 0,021-0,027 and Cinnamon (Vietnam) Pb mean 2,224 against range 2,264-2,923. Values are transcribed as printed rather than recalculated.
• ginger is not present in the current ingredient taxonomy snapshot, so ginger is included only as a matrix term.
• Frontmatter product and ingredient slugs were checked against docs/gpt-collaboration/taxonomy-snapshot.md; no new slug was invented.

Page history

The five most recent substantive edits to this page. The full version history lives in git; when DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.