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Heavy metal pollution is a serious environmental issue, particularly in developing countries like Nigeria. This research work focused on investigating the levels of heavy metals concentration in polyalthia longifolia. The metals analyzed include the following, Chromium (Cr), Lead (Pb), Calcium (Ca), Sodium (Na), Copper (Cu), Iron (Fe), Nickel (Ni), Aluminium (Al), Mercury (Hg) and Zinc (Zn) in the bark of polyalthia longifolia, the fresh bark samples were collected from Akwaka, Rivers-state. Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry was used to analyze the fresh bark samples for heavy metals. The results obtained for fresh bark were; Chromium (0.03mg/100g), Lead (0.05mg/100g), Sodium (3.80mg/100g), Arsenic (0.01mg/100g), Copper (0.23mg/100g), Iron (5.21mg/100g) Nickel (0.01mg/100), Aluminium (0.30mg/100g), Mercury (ND), Zinc (2.97mg/100g) and Calcium (3.80mg/100g). from the results obtained it has shown that mercury is not detected, the values of iron, sodium, and zinc are considerably significant and which contributes to the nutritional and medicinal importance of the plant in building of the cells as coenzymes and effective metabolic rate in the body system, the values of arsenic, lead and mercury show that the plants is less toxic and may not be harmful to the human system. The consumption of this plant can contribute good fibre, high energy content and will effectively reduce dangerous health risks, the results are generally within the permissible limit of World Health Organization. . For separation and identification of various components of the Polyathia Longifolia sample extract, thin-layer chromatography (TLC) was performed using 95% ethyl acetate and 5% ethanol as eluents. This gave three separation spots with Rf factors of 0.1, 0.025 and 0.075 respectively. Extraction of the Polyalthia Longifolia plant bark was carried out by steeping washed, air-dried and ground sample in n-hexane for 48 hours, which was then filtered and evaporated to dryness to obtain a thick black viscous liquid The plant is rich in minerals and is properly cultiivated in Nigeria. Continuous research on other areas of polyalthia longifolia, should be carried out regularly in the area.
Lawson et al. (Mon,) studied this question.