Frontiers of Agriculture and Food Technology

Frontiers of Agriculture and Food Technology ISSN: 2736-1624 Vol. 15 (3), pp. 001-006, March, 2025. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Bioaccumulation and Distribution of Heavy Metals in Agricultural Plants Cultivated Near the Itakpe Iron Mine, Nigeria

Matthews-Amune, Omono Christiana*and Kakulu, Samuel

Department of Chemistry, University of Abuja, Abuja, Nigeria

Accepted November 25, 2024

Heavy metal accumulation in plants is of importance due to toxicity effects in humans and other biota. Crop plants were sampled around Itakpe mine, Okene, Nigeria for the determination of the heavy metals cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), magnesium (Mg), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn) using Flame Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy. Crop plants samples were collected during the dry and rainy seasons and digested with 4:1 mixture of HNO3 and HClO4. Recovery studies gave 80-120 % for crop plants. The average mean concentration of metallic levels in crop plants were 0.07±0.01, 0.14±0.10, 0.02±0.01, 0.09±0.01, 0.06±0.02, 0.25±0.13 µg/g. The heavy metal concentrations of crops grown on control soil were relatively lower than those in the Itakpe mining site soil. The observed concentrations of heavy metals in the studied plants were below the FAO/WHO limit guideline for food. The presence of Zn and Cu in plants and the higher level of metals observed in the mining site farm crops compared with the control farm show that agrochemicals and mining contribute to the metallic levels in the Itakpe mining environment.

Keywords: Crop plants, Heavy metal, Agrochemicals, Mining.