Monitoring Heavy Metal Contamination in the Pineapple (Ananas comosus) Cultivated tracts of Kerala, India

Agriculture plays an important role in the sustainable development of the country. Use of chemical fertilizers escalate certain components in excess quantity thereby deteriorate the productivity and leads to unpredicted outcome. This study makes an effort to reckon the accumulation of some selected heavy metals [Lead (Pb), Nickel (Ni) and Cadmium(Cd)] and related indices [bio concentration factor(BCF) and translocation factor (TF)] from roots, leaves and fruits of pineapple plantations in Ernakulam district. Contamination factor(CF), enrichment factor(EF) and geo accumulation index (Igeo) disclose the extent of soil contamination in the pineapple cultivated regions of Ernakulam district. Root to shoot TF derived for Pb, Ni, and Cd were 0.25, 0.733 and 0.6731. TF of Pb, Ni and Cd from root to fruit was 0, 0.5 and 0.195 respectively. Values obtained for BCF of Pb, Ni and Cd in root of the pineapple plant were 0.2013,0.5758 and 0.3288. In pineapple leaves BCF showed the values 0.0503, 0.4222 and 0.2214 by Pb, Ni and Cd. Pineapple fruit showed BCF values Zero, 0.2879 and 0.0641 for Pb, Ni and Cd. Enrichment factor for Pb, Ni and Cd in pineapple cultivated areas comes under the value 4.2, 3.7 and 2.8 respectively. Furthermore, the contamination factor of Pb, Ni and Cd was 9.93, 8.26 and 6.23, respectively. The values of geo accumulation index obtained for different heavy metals pass on that the degree of pollution with respect to Pb (6.621) was very strong and extremely contaminated, heavily to extremely contaminated for Ni (5.513) and Cd (4.15).