Razi Journal of Medical Sciences

Background: Spices are sources of many bioactive compounds that can improve the taste of food as well as affect the digestion metabolism. Along with that they may also contain some substances as heavy metals which may have harmful effect on the body. This study was undertaken to analyze and study the health risks of Fe and Cr in cinnamon, black pepper, chili and borage consumed in Hamedan City in 2015.

Methods: After preparing six samples from each studied spices (a total of 18 samples), preparation and acid digestion of samples in laboratory, the mean concentrations of elements were determined using an Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) in three replications. Also, all statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS statistical package.

Results: The results showed that the maximum mean concentrations of Fe and Cr in spices samples were 15.83±27.63 and 0.10±0.13 mg/kg, related to black pepper and chili, respectively. Also the mean concentrations of metals in spices samples were lower than Maximum Permissible Limits (MPL) approved by WHO and health risk assessment showed that no potential risk for children and adult by consuming the studied spices.

Conclusion: Although controlled consumption of spices does not have adverse effect on the consumers’ health, but due to the lack of adequate information about processing conditions, habitat adjacent to industrial areas polluted with heavy metals, increased use of agricultural inputs, sewage sludge and wastewater by farmers, regular periodic monitoring of chemical pollutants content specially heavy metals in foodstuffs are recommended for food safety.