potential health risk assessment of cr, cu, fe and zn for human population via consumption of commercial spices; a case study of hamedan city, iran

abstract aims: spices are sources of many bioactive compounds that can improve the taste of food as well as affecting the digestion and metabolism. along with that, they may also contain some substances as heavy metals, which have harmful effects on the body. the aim of present study was to assess the potential health risk of cr, cu, fe and zn contents of cardamom, curry powder and turmeric in hamedan city, iran. instrument & methods: 18 industrially packaged and weighted spice samples (cardamom, curry powder and turmeric) belonging to 6 famous brands were bought from different supermarkets of hamedan city, iran, in 2015. the human health risks posed by chronic exposure to the heavy metals were assessed by computing the average daily intake of metal. the health risk index (hri) for the local population through the consumption of spice was assessed using dim/rfd formula. data were analyzed using anova, dms post-hoc, tukey hsd and pearson's correlation coefficient tests.  findings: cr was detected in spice samples in 0.08-1.67mg/kg, cu 0.05-1.28mg/kg, fe 1.04-6.89mg/kg and zn 0.40-2.25mg/kg. the mean concentration of cu, fe and zn were lower than mpl. the dim values for the examined spice samples were below the recommended values.  conclusion: the levels of cr, cu, fe and zn are less than the mpl in cardamom, curry powder and turmeric in hamedan city, iran.