HEALTH RISKS ASSESSMENT OF HEAVY METALS IN THREE PROCESSED LOCALLY CONSUMED SPICES FOR PHARMACEUTICAL APPLICATION

In this study, four (4) heavy metals were analyzed (Zn, Cu, Fe, Pb, and Na) using Atomic Absorption Spectrophometer (AAS) technique. Three (3) food spices namely processed curry powder; processed thyme and processed nutmeg were analyzed for these heavy metals. All the heavy metals analyzed were virtually found in all the spices at varied concentrations (0.135-0.188, 0.041-0.160, 0.311-1.224 and 0.021-0.368,mg/kg for Zn, Cu, Fe, and Pb, respectively) and ranged within the standards of WHO/FAO for metals in food spices. The result indicates that these food spices contain some mineral elements that are essential as neutraceuticals for the body. When these elements/nutrients are far above normal absorbable range, they possess a lot of health risk including questionable disorders. However, Health risk assessment result revealed that no health related issue may arise from its consumption since all the indicators (EDIM < 1; HRI < 1; THQ < 1 and HI < 1) were all less than unity. Therefore, the results showed that these spices can be useful in pharmaceutical applications since they contain appropriate amount of the studied heavy metals.