Mineral profile and proximate analysis of fresh and waste water irrigated cabbage from Quetta Balochistan
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Abstract
In developing countries especially in Pakistan due to insufficient fresh water resources, wastewater is largely used for irrigation purposes. The wastewater cultivated vegetables due to presence of toxic material might be injurious to human health. The present study was designed to interpret the effect of waste and fresh water on the nutritional value of Cabbage (Brassica oleracea). For the purpose of macro and micro nutrients along with proximate contents of the randomly selected cabbage samples from both irrigation types were analysed. The cabbage harvested from wastewater plots showed more accumulation of heavy metals than that of fresh water. The macro and micro nutrients (mg/g) in waste and fresh water cabbage were Calcium (Ca) (395.00, 399.60), Magnesium (Mg) (226.82, 234.00), Iron (Fe) (1.01, 1.06), Chromium (Cr) (0.74, 0.83), Nickle (Ni) (0.86, 0.91), Cadmium (Cd) (0.15, 0.14), Lead (Pb) (0.72, 0.07), Copper (Cu) (1.32, 1.85) and Zinc (Zn) (0.24, 0.38), respectively. Whereas, the macro and micro minerals contents of the fresh and wastewater mg/l were Ca (35.61, 37.39), Mg (23.62, 24.97), Fe (0.16, 0.18), Cr (0.05, 0.06), Ni (0.006, 0.007), Cd (0.16, 0.18), Pb (0.019, 0.07), Cu (0.007, 0.02) and Zn (0.28, 0.57), respectively. The result for the proximate composition of freshly harvested (g/100g) revealed Crude fibre (3.24 and 3.24 %), Crude protein (1.80 and 1.58 %), Ether extract (6.42 and 6.22 %), Dry matter (6.94 and 7.18 %), Moisture contents (93.02 and 92.8 %) and Ash (0.67 and 0.61 %). The study showed that cabbage is rich in appreciable amount of macro and micro nutrients, therefore possess high nutritional values in human consumption but continuous accumulation of these metals can pose severe threats to health of people.
Keywords: Brassica 0leracea; Heavy metals; Proximate analysis; Wastewater; Vegetables; Atomic absorption spectroscopy