Abstract:
Sweet basil mostly cultivated in Ethiopia. In this research work, the researchers are highly interested to
determine the levels of some essential and non- essential metals found in sweet basil leave sample
grown from two representative kebele of Ankober district. The leaf of sweet basil samples were
randomly collected from Alyu Amba and Mehal Wonz kebele. After proper pre-treatment, the digestion
temperature (100o
c), volume of reagents used (69% of HNO3 and 70% of HClO4 in ratio of 3:1), digestion
time(3hrs) were optimized and the levels of selected metals were determined by inductively coupled
plasma optical emission spectrometry(ICP-OES OPTIMA 8000). The levels of essential metals in the
sweet basil leaf samples were in the following ranges Ca (14.28-17.17mg/kg), Mg (7.18- 8.495 mg/kg), Fe
(6.95-8.57 mg/kg), Cu (0.242-0.257mg/kg), Cr (0.1957-0.203mg/kg).The concentration of non-essential
metal Cd was in the range from (0.044-0.047 mg/kg) while that of Pb was below the detection limit in
both samples. The level of metals analysed in Ethiopia sweet basil were very low compared to the levels
of metals in sweet basil from other parts of the world. All determined metals were found below the
levels allowed for vegetables by WHO/FAO, and levels are in safety base line levels for human
consumption. The concentrations of identified metals in Ethiopian sweet basil are very low compared to
other aromatic herbs. The t-test at 95% confidence limit indicated that there is significant difference in
the mean of Cr and Fe but no significant difference in the level of Ca, Mg, Cu and Cd in both samples.
