Abstract:
In this study, washed and unwashed tomato fruits (Lycopersicon esculentum Miller) were
collected from six different station types such as; brook coast, suburban area, industrial area, inner
city, roadside and village (control) in Istanbul-Turkey, in 2009. Unwashed and washed fruit samples
were used to analyze cadmium, chromium, copper, iron, nickel, lead and zinc concentrations by using
inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. It was observed that washing procedure
reduced concentrations of all heavy metals related to station types. In accordance with the results, the
lowest and highest heavy metal accumulations measured in fruits were as follows; cadmium (0.17-0.40
µg/g dw), chrome (0.94-5.67 µg/g dw), copper (7.67-14.27 µg/g dw), iron (19.16-64.53 µg/g dw),
nickel (1.02-11.64 µg/g dw), lead (4.31-5.51 µg/g dw) and zinc (1.36-3.07 µg/g dw). As a result, the
relative abundance of heavy metals in tomato samples were observed as
iron>copper>nickel>chrome>lead>zinc>cadmium. According to the results of this study, it can be
said that tomato fruits reflect heavy metal amounts well in polluted areas such as urban, industrial and
roadside when compared to unpolluted (control) areas with their washed and unwashed samples.
