Overview
Orisakwe and colleagues measured lead, cadmium and nickel by flame AAS in food crops, fruits and soils from Ohaji, Umuagwo and Owerri in Imo State, Nigeria, and estimated daily intakes and health-risk indices. Samples were washed, oven-dried at 70–80 °C and powdered before digestion, so results are on a dry-weight basis, although the tables do not label it. Table 1 gives one value per crop.
Key numbers
- Plantain (Musa paradisiaca), edible part: lead not detected, cadmium 0.11 mg/kg, nickel 1.00 mg/kg (Table 1).
- Table 5 is a derived daily-intake table (plantain “Nil | 0.0007 | 0.0062”), not concentrations; its unit label does not match the calculation.
Methods (brief)
Dry ashing and HClO4/HNO3 digestion; flame AAS (Unicam 929). Detection limit 0.001 ppm in solution for each metal; spike recovery performed but recoveries not reported; no certified reference material. The number of plantain samples and the site of each are not stated.
Evidence Fitness
A single pooled value per crop without sample counts or dispersion. Some values for other crops (for example rice lead 61.17 mg/kg) are implausibly high for food analysed by flame AAS, so the study-level analytical quality is uncertain.