RESEARCH ARTICLE
Accumulation of Heavy Metals (Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, Ni, Pb, Cd and Cr) in Tissues of Narrow-barred Spanish mackerel (Family-Scombridae) Fish Marketed by Karachi Fish Harbor
Quratulan Ahmed 1, *, Levent Bat 2, Farzana Yousuf 3, Qadeer Mohammad Ali 1, Kanwal Nazim 1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2015Volume: 1
First Page: 20
Last Page: 28
Publisher Id: BIOLSCI-1-20
DOI: 10.2174/2352633501501010020
Article History:
Received Date: 11/3/2015Revision Received Date: 22/4/2015
Acceptance Date: 22/5/2015
Electronic publication date: 17/9/2015
Collection year: 2015
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
In the present study, Scomberomorus commerson was collected during the period 2006-2011 in order to provide information on the concentrations of eight heavy metals present in this marine species commonly consumed by the population and to have knowledge whether these levels may constitute a hazard to consumers. Liver showed high concentrations of metals in the tissues and organs. Fe is the most accumulated in all tissues and organs. The highest mean concentration of Fe (608.93+113.22 µg/g), Mn (9.79+4.22 µg/g), Cu (38.57+16.62 µg/g), Zn (53.25+26.50 µg/g), Ni (3.22+1.13 µg/g), Pb (1.20+0.64 µg/g), Cd (2.03+0.91 µg/g) and Cr (1.93 + 0.87 µg/g) was determined in liver of fish. The order of abundance of the metals in the fish samples based on concentrations in the muscle tissues analysed were as follows: Fe>Zn>Cu>Mn>Ni>Cd>Pb≥Cr. For the toxic metal, Pb was found to have lower concentration of the mean values than the permissible limits set by FAO/WHO. However, Cd level was higher than the permissible limit and it can be concluded that the contamination of Cd in S. commerson may pose threat for the importers due to high per capita consumption of the fish.