Abstract
Tropical cereals and legumes available at Peshawar were assayed for heavy metals such as lead, copper, cadmium and zinc using potentiometric stripping analysis technique. Among cereals, maize gra~~s contained maximum am~~nts of lead 0.72 u g g ) and cadmium (0.09 u g g ) and the minimum values of these metals were in barley 1 grains. Maximum amo':!~ts of copper (8.10 lJ g g- ) and zinc (38.5 u g g ) were in the wheat while the. lQw.~~(l.q, I:&~r-.~ grains, A;nong legumes, max}rrum amount.s oJ reao' was In lenti~l (0.078 lJg g ), copper in soybean (12.9 -l}1g g ), cadmium in chickpea-w~~te (0.04 lJg g ) and zinc in soybean (40.2 lJg g ). Determination of coefficient of variation among vegetables and legumes revealed generally wide differences for lead and cadmium than copper and zinc.
