Determination of heavy metal concentrations in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Miller) grown in different station types

In this study, washed and unwashed tomato fruits (Lycopersicon esculentum Miller) were collected from six different station types such as; brook coast, suburban area, industrial area, inner city, roadside and village (control) in Istanbul-Turkey, in 2009. Unwashed and washed fruit samples were used to analyze cadmium, chromium, copper, iron, nickel, lead and zinc concentrations by using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. It was observed that washing procedure reduced concentrations of all heavy metals related to station types. In accordance with the results, the lowest and highest heavy metal accumulations measured in fruits were as follows; cadmium (0.17-0.40 μg/g dw), chrome (0.94-5.67 μg/g dw), copper (7.67-14.27 μg/g dw), iron (19.16-64.53 μg/g dw), nickel (1.02-11.64 μg/g dw), lead (4.31-5.51 μg/g dw) and zinc (1.36-3.07 μg/g dw). As a result, the relative abundance of heavy metals in tomato samples were observed as iron>copper>nickel>chrome>lead>zinc>cadmium. According to the results of this study, it can be said that tomato fruits reflect heavy metal amounts well in polluted areas such as urban, industrial and roadside when compared to unpolluted (control) areas with their washed and unwashed samples. © 2012 University of Bucharest.