Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
in Rivers State; this is due to the presence of Onne Sea Port, Eleme and Port Harcourt
Refineries, Eleme Petrochemicals among others on one hand, and the movement of goods
and persons between Aba and Port Harcourt on the other. On these routes, it is common to
see vehicles under- going various types of repairs, mechanic workshops and heavy exhaust
emissions, and these invariably become the primary source of pollution to the road side
soils. Symptoms associated with acute oral zinc dose are vascular shock, vomiting,
diarrhoea, pancreatitis and damage of hepatic parenchyma. Consequently, crop plants
growing on heavy metal contaminated medium can accumulate high concentrations of trace
metals causing serious health risks to consumers.
3. Hypothesis
H
O
: There is significant difference in the mean concentration of heavy metals in bitter
leaf cultivated along heavy traffic route from the ones cultivated away from the routes.
H
A
: There is no significant difference in the mean concentration of heavy metals in
bitter leaf cultivated along heavy traffic routes from the ones cultivated away from the
routes.
3.1. Materials and methods
The materials used for this study include among others bitter leaf, stainless steel knife,
laboratory grinder, polythene bags, desiccator, analytical balance, platinum crucible, muffle
furnace, hydrochloric acid, volumetric flask, distilled water and atomic absorption
spectrophotometer.
3.2. Study area
The research was carried out in three different heavy traffic vehicular routes in Rivers State.
These routes are: Eleme Junction - Aba Road, Eleme Junction - Akpajo Road and Akpajo -
Refinery Junction. The control location was Kina Gbara Street in Bori, Khana Local
Government Area.
3.3. Sample collection and preparation
The bitter leaf samples were obtained from the four stated locations. The bitter leaf were
harvested from two different sites per location; and then put into separate polythene bags
and labelled accordingly. They were then taken immediately to the laboratory for
preparation and analysis.
The bitter leaf (
Vernonia amygdalina)
samples were washed with tap water and thoroughly
rinsed with distilled water, then dried in an oven at 105
o
C. They were then pulverized to
fine powder using a laboratory grinder. The fine powder was put into polythene bags and
preserved in the desiccator. 3.0g of each sample was accurately weighed into clean platinum
crucible and ashed at 450-500
o
C, then cooled to room temperature in the desiccator. The ash
