Uchenna and Onyebuchi 2023 - Heavy metals in Ihiala market fruits

This study measured metals in banana, watermelon, apple, and pineapple sold in markets in Ihiala, Anambra State, Nigeria. It provides fresh-fruit context, including a direct pineapple matrix, with arsenic and iron exceeding the comparison limits used by the authors.

Key numbers

Source units are mg/kg.

  • Mean fruit concentrations across sampled fruits: Zn 0.038917; Ni 0.042750; Cu 0.040000; Pb 0.003333; Cr 0.003917; As 0.004833; Fe 1.914750.
  • WHO/FAO comparison limits in the source table: Zn 0.300; Ni 0.500; Cu 0.500; Pb 0.100; Cr 0.050; As 0.003; Fe 0.800.
  • The source reports Zn, Ni, Cu, Pb, and Cr as within limits and As and Fe as not acceptable against its cited comparison values.
  • The study collected 12 fruit samples from three markets plus three unripe banana samples for ripening comparison.

Methods

The authors used market sampling, questionnaires, and laboratory analysis. Statistical comparisons were made across fruits and markets.

Implications

The source supports fresh-fruit occurrence context for Nigerian market fruit. The source reports aggregate means rather than a clean pineapple-only table in extractable text, so fruit-specific routing should preserve that limitation.

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Verification notes

  • Source identity checked against DOI 10.3126/josem.v2i1.53113 and the downloaded PDF.
  • The extractable table gives aggregate fruit means; no brand/vendor identifiers were transcribed.

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.

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ce3e07c2026-05-28activation | Vercel DATACITE env slots set, curators.md filled with founder entry + six scoped reviewer invitations, peer-review onboarding playbook drafted
51400b92026-05-28audit-queue: gasparik2017-wild-boar-slovakia-metals audited-revised