Chemometric approach to evaluate heavy metals’ content in Daucus Carota from different localities in Serbia

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate heavy metal content in carrots (Daucus carota) from the different localities in Serbia and assess by the cluster analysis (CA) and principal components analysis (PCA) the heavy metal contamination of carrots from these areas. Carrot was collected at 13 locations in five districts. Chemometric methods (CA and PCA) were applied to classify localities according to heavy metal content in carrots. CA separated localities into two statistical significant clusters. PCA permitted the reduction of 12 variables to four principal components explaining 79.94% of the total variance. The first most important principal component was strongly associated with the value of Cu, Sb, Pb and Tl. This study revealed that CA and PCA appear useful tools for differentiation of localities in different districts using the profile of heavy metal in carrot samples. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 172051]

Keywords

• Carrot
• heavy metal
• ICP OES
• cluster analysis
• Principal component analysis