Abstract

Author(s): Shisho HAILE* and Berhe AKELE

This study focused on the quantitative determination of selected essential and heavy metals in avocado, banana and mango samples with their respective soil samples collected from Darimu, Yeki, Kura, Fide, Zinki, Bechi, Idris and Kubito kebeles.. The metals investigated were Ca, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn. Acid digestion was used for sample preparation prior to injection. Finally, Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (FAAS) was used to determine the concentration of metals. The result indicated that, Cd and Ni were not detected in all samples while Cr was not detected in avocado and mango fruit samples. Avocado fruit contains: 2.65% Ca, 1.98% Cu, 12.02% Pb and 8.17% Zn while its soil contains: 35.49% Ca, 62.08% Cr, 24.86% Cu, 20.91% Pb and 21.05% Zn. Banana fruit contains: 1.39% Ca, 2.75% Cr, 47.47% Cu, 14.18% Pb and 24.38% Zn while its soil contains: 39.85% Ca, 20.49% Cr, 11.86% Cu, 18.51% Pb and 17.31% Zn. Mango fruit contains: 3.09% Ca, 3.95% Cu, 12.98% Pb and 7.89% Zn while its soil contains: 17.53% Ca, 14.68% Cr, 9.60% Cu, 21.39% Pb and 21.19% Zn. Ca was highly up taken by mango while Cu, Pb and Zn were highly up taken by banana sample. On the other hand, Cr was up taken only by banana fruit sample.