Shukla and Kumar 2020 - heavy metals in Prayagraj honey

Shukla and Kumar analyzed pollen origin, physicochemical parameters, minerals, and heavy metals in 14 honey samples from Prayagraj District, Uttar Pradesh. Most Cd, Pb, Cu, and As measurements were below 0.01 mg/kg, with a few detectable Cd and Pb values. The source is honey occurrence evidence and does not support the mineral-water row implied by the fetched filename.

Key numbers

The abstract reports heavy metals in mg/kg. Cd, Pb, Cu, and As were below the detection limit of <0.01 mg/kg in all samples except:

The abstract text uses “Pd” where the context and heavy-metal list indicate Pb; this page records the value as lead but flags the typographic issue for audit.

Methods (brief)

The study combined melissopalynology with physicochemical analysis on 14 Apis dorsata honey samples collected from rural and urban localities of Prayagraj District in the 2017–2018 winter season. Minerals (Mg, Fe, Zn) and heavy metals (Cd, Pb, Cu, As) were determined by atomic absorption spectrometry on a Perkin Elmer Analyst 700 instrument in a certified laboratory at the University of Allahabad, Prayagraj. Reported limit of detection was 0.01 ppm. All physicochemical analyses were run in triplicate; significance between samples was tested by one-way ANOVA with Duncan’s multiple range test (p<0.05) in SPSS 16. The paper does not report a digestion procedure, certified reference material, or recovery data for the heavy-metal assay, so analytical traceability is limited to the instrument and lab identification above.

Implications

Certification: Useful as India-specific honey occurrence evidence for Pb and Cd with mostly non-detect findings.

Courses: Demonstrates how honey-origin papers may carry usable contaminant data alongside pollen and quality measures.

App: Supports a regional honey evidence point after synthesis.

Wiki pages this source may touch

• Honey
• Honey
• Lead
• Cadmium
• Arsenic

Verification notes

The PDF prints “Pd” in the abstract, conclusion, and Table 3 row label where the heavy-metal panel is otherwise described as cadmium, lead, copper, and arsenic. The Materials and Methods section “DETERMINATION OF MINERALS AND HEAVY METALS” lists the panel explicitly as “(Cd, Pb, Cu, As)”, which confirms “Pd” is a recurring typographic substitution for “Pb” rather than a palladium measurement; the values are recorded as lead on this page on that basis.

Independent verification of Table 3 (page 131) via pdftotext confirms Cu (mg/kg) and As (mg/kg) rows are BLD across all 14 samples, matching the abstract’s claim that copper and arsenic were below the limit of detection. Only Cd and Pb (printed as “Pd”) show detectable values, in the four samples recorded above.

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.