Research article

Determination of the Elemental content and Comparison of their concentrations in the Stem, Fruit and Leaf of Detarium microcarpum  Guill and Perr Plant Samples  from Nyibango – Ganye, Adamawa state, Nigeria

Reuben KD^1*, Getuge YA ¹, Ojar JU¹, Pur AH ¹, Yohanna MD ² and Abdulrahman FI³

¹Department of Basic Sciences, Adamawa State College of Agriculture, Ganye, Nigeria

²Department of Agricultural Engineering Technology, Adamawa State College of Agriculture, Ganye, Nigeria

³Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Maiduguri, P. M. B. 1069, Maiduguri, Nigeria

*Corresponding Author E – mail: datsureuben@yahoo.com, Tel. 08054805698, 07083359820

Accepted 31 May 2014

Abstract

The fresh plant parts (stem bark, fruits and leaves) of Detarium microcarpum of Caesalpinoideae were collected from Nyibango – Ganye, Ganye Local Government Area of Adamawa State, Nigeria. These plant parts were air dried to constant weight and ten (10) grams each were burnt to ash in the furnace and digested. The presence and concentrations of chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), magnesium (Mg), iron (Fe), copper (Cu), cobalt (Co), arsenic (As), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn) and cadmium (Cd) were determined, using Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS). All the elements analyzed for were observed present in all the plant parts at various concentration levels, and the stem bark showed the lowest concentration of all the elements studied, while fruit had the highest concentrations of them respectively. The low concentration of the elements in the stem bark, especially of lead (Pb) at 0.43, 2.43 and 1.88 µgg-1 for stem bark, fruit and leaves shows that the consumption of the plant parts of this widely used medicinal herb, especially its fruit and stem bark has no health risk.

Keywords: elemental Content, Presence, Concentration, Detarium microcarpum.