Investigate the presence of some heavy metals and microbes in spices

Abstract

The study included collecting of 11 types of spices. That are sold in the local markets of Tikrit (coriander, curry, turmeric, ginger, black pepper, tarshi spices, biryani spices, nigella sativa, cinnamon, and sumac) to investigate the presence of some types of heavy elements and to diagnose the microorganisms contaminating them. The results showed that the concentration of some heavy elements is within the permissible limits according to the standard set by the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization. The results indicate that they are all free of the two elements, cadmium and lead, while zinc, nickel and cobalt were found in different concentrations in other different types of spices.  The concentration of nickel was higher than the permissible limit of black pepper, threshing, and turmeric samples, reaching (4.959, 3.850, 2.740) ppm, respectively, while the nickel concentration in the rest of the samples was less than 0.05 ppm, which is less than the permissible limit. In addition, the cobalt concentration was higher than the permissible limit in black pepper and curry samples with 4.930 and 3.732 ppm, respectively, while the rest of the spices samples were less than the permissible limit. It was found that the content of spice samples of zinc in all spice samples being under the permissible limit (100) pmm according to (FAO and WHO) and the values were between 0.392 - 1.794 ppm.The total number of bacteria in the spices was between ( 5 ×⁵10) and (95× ⁵10) and  CFU/ gm , the presence of E.coli was observed in the whole examined samples with numbers ranging (  93×⁵10 _ 35× ⁵10)  CFU/ gm , while the number of bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus)   was    1 ) ×⁵1 0 to 17 ×⁵10  ).