Abstract
Global industrialization could be considered as a major cause of environmental contamination with heavy metals. Barley and malt, vastly used in the food industries, are of no exception. Therefore, we aimed to measure the levels of trace elements Zinc, Copper and heavy metals Lead and Cadmium by Differential Pulse Anodic Stripping Voltammetry in 19 barley grain cultivars and their malts in Iran. Ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay was also used for determination of antioxidant activity of the samples. The mean levels of Zn, Cd, Pb and Cu were measured to be 18.813 ± 8.575, 0.212 ± 0.116, 0.278 ± 0.163, 3.746 ± 1.118 mg/100g in the barley samples and 14.364 ± 6.391, 0.153 ± 0.098, 0.179 ± 0.082 and 3.033 ± 1.392 mg/100g in the malt samples, respectively. The highest concentration of Zn was measured in the Bahman cultivar of barley and Mb-82-4 sample of malt while the Sahra cultivar of barley and Valfajr sample of malt had the lowest concentration of Pb and the Nimrooz cultivar of barley and Rihane-03 sample of malt had the lowest concentration Cu. The mean levels of zinc and lead in the evaluated samples of barley and the mean levels of zinc, lead and cadmium in the samples of malt were significantly lower than standard limits. Although not significant, the mean levels of cadmium in barley samples and copper in malt samples were higher than the standard limits, but the mean level of copper was found to be significantly higher than the standard limits in the samples of barley (p = 0.008). Antioxidant acitivity was found to be highest in the Mb-82-12 sample of malt and Nik cultivar of barley. The average antioxidant activity was found to be significantly higher in the malt compared to barley grain; 1.584 ± 0.596 mg/kg vs. 0.633 ± 0.221 mg/kg (p < 0.001). The mean level of copper in barley samples was significantly higher than the standard limit that needs further investigations to be controlled.
Highlights
The barley (Hordeum vulgare) is one of the oldest cultivated cereal commodities of Poaceae family that include wheat, rice and maize [1]
The minimum amounts of Zn, Cu, Pb and Cd that could be measured via the Differential Pulse Anodic Stripping Voltammetry (DPASV) method applied in this survey were calculated to be 0.05 mg/kg, 0.01 mg/kg, 0.005 mg/kg and 0.005 mg/kg, respectively
The second column of the table shows the standard limits of each element determined by Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization (FAO/WHO), which were similar for barley and malt
Summary
The barley (Hordeum vulgare) is one of the oldest cultivated cereal commodities of Poaceae family that include wheat, rice and maize [1]. The food, the water we drink, the air we breathe and in almost everything we are in contact with every day contains some levels of these toxins [7] In this regard, water and food contamination is considered as a major nutritional health issue due to the eminent industrial growth and the consequential extensive application of chemicals [8]. Zinc has been found in approximately 100 specific enzymes, is present in transcription factors as structural ions and is stored and transferred in metallothioneins [12] This element plays various biological roles in the human body including metabolism of RNA and DNA, gene expression, signal transduction, regulation of apoptosis, modulation of brain excitability and synaptic plasticity [13]. It was aimed to measure the levels of zinc, copper, lead, cadmium and antioxidant activity in a few samples of malt and barley via polarography and FRAP method, respectively
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