This study determined the influence of different cooking procedures on the removal of toxic elements (TEs) including arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), and lead (Pb) along with other nutrient elements from ...different commercially available rice brands sold in Bangladeshi markets. We observed 33%, 35%, and 27% average removal of As, Cd, and Pb accordingly from rice when cooked with a rice to water ratio of 1:6 after washing 5 times. We also found a significant reduction in essential elements: Zn (17%), Cu (10%), Mn (22%), Se (49%), and Mo (22%), when rice cooking was performed as in traditional practice. Daily dietary intakes were found to be between 0.36 and 1.67 µg/kgbw for As, 0.06 and 1.15 µg/kgbw for Cd, and 0.04 and 0.17 µg/kgbw for Pb when rice was cooked by the rice cooker method (rice:water 1:2), while in the traditional method (rice:water 1:6) daily intake rates ranged from 0.23 to 1.3 µg/kgbw for As, 0.04 to 0.88 µg/kgbw for Cd, and 0.03 to 0.15 µg/kgbw for Pb for adults. The HQ and ILCR for As, Cd, and Pb revealed that there is a possibility of noncarcinogenic and carcinogenic risk for As but no appreciable risk for Cd and Pb from consumption of rice.
Human health risks as a result of consuming pesticide residues in fresh vegetables have drawn serious attention to the scientific community, particularly in developing countries. This study analyzed ...country bean (Lablab purpureus L.) and eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) for widely used neonicotinoid, synthetic pyrethroid, and dithiocarbamate pesticide residues in order to ensure food safety. The analyzed vegetables contained residues of acetamiprid and cypermethrin in 17% of bean and 13% of eggplant samples, respectively; among them, 3% of bean and 1% of eggplant samples had residues of acetamiprid that were above the maximum residue limits set by the European Union (EU-MRLs). None of the samples for either of the analyzed vegetables contained the residue of thiram and lambda-cyhalothrin. In contrast, 83% of bean and 87% of eggplant samples had no detectable pesticides. Thus, the findings were surprising considering the repeated and overuse of pesticides in vegetables in the investigated areas. However, this outcome supports the general claim of pesticide adulteration in terms of the active ingredients, which is another drawback to ensuring food safety. The non-cancer health risk assessment based on the acute health risk to consumer (aHI) and chronic hazard quotient (HQ) indicates that contaminated vegetables might pose a potential threat to children’s health and alarming for adults. This study reflects the overall scenario of pesticide residues in marketed vegetables of Barishal district of Bangladesh, which could help the consumers to bring awareness, and to take necessary actions by the pesticide suppliers and policymakers.
Food, including rice, is the major source of toxic element cadmium (Cd) for human exposure. Globally, many populations rely on the consumption of significant amounts of rice as a staple food. Using ...dietary intake and concentration of Cd, this study determines the risk posed to both adults and children due to Cd exposure from consumption of rice sold in Bangladeshi markets. Polished rice samples (n = 144) were collected from the markets of 16 districts of Bangladesh to determine the distribution, regional variability and associated health risk from Cd. The mean and median concentrations of Cd in rice were 44 μg/kg and 34 μg/kg, respectively, ranging between 1 and 180 μg/kg, dry weight. The Cd concentrations of the rice samples did not exceed the safe limit of EU/CODEX but 9% exceeded the safe limit of FSANZ (Food standards Australia New Zealand) values. Results indicated that there were significant variations of Cd among (33%) and within (67%) the districts. Some rice brands such as Najirshail, Katarivogh and Chinigura had Cd levels of 81, 70 and 68 μg/kg, respectively. Cadmium ingested on a daily basis ranged between 0.09 and 0.58 μg/kg body weight (bw) with the incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) for individuals varying between 1.35 × 10−3 and 8.7 × 10−3 in different districts. The age groups (2–5 yrs) and (6–10 yrs) experienced higher risks than others and both males and females were found to be susceptible from Cd exposure of rice.
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•Most of the rice grains contained Cd concentrations less than EU or CODEX standard values.•9% of rice samples contained Cd concentrations which exceeded the FSANZ standard.•Cadmium concentrations in rice are influenced by locations and brands.•Daily intake of Cd from rice varied between 0.09 and 0.58 μg/kg bw.•HQ values were < 1 for both districts and rice brands indicated no non-carcinogenic risk.
Arum plant parts such as stem, leaf and corm and the corresponding farm soils were sampled from four As-impacted districts of Bangladesh to assess the potential health risk to humans from toxic ...elements (TEs) including arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb). The mean concentrations of As in arum leaf, stem and corm were 150 μg/kg, 107 μg/kg and 101 μg/kg, respectively, whereas mean Cd in arum leaf, stem and corm were 115 μg/kg, 261 μg/kg and 180 μg/kg, respectively and mean Pb in arum leaf, stem and corm were 595 μg/kg, 403 μg/kg and 577 μg/kg, respectively. Daily dietary intake of As, Cd and Pb from sampled arum were 0.003, 0.008 and 0.021 μg/kg bw for adults. As per capita intake of arum is low, hazard quotient (HQ) values for all TEs were found minimal, which reveals no appreciable health risk associated with arum consumption to the local inhabitants.
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•Distribution of As, Cd and Pb in different edible parts of arum plant.•Arum leaf contained greater amounts of As and Pb than arum stem and corm.•55% of As present in arum as inorganic form of As.•HQ and ILCR values showed no health risk for As and Pb from arum consumption.
Rice is a major dietary source of essential trace elements required for the human body but also can be an exposure pathway to different potentially toxic trace elements. This study determined various ...essential and toxic trace elements in rice from Bangladeshi markets and their possible health risks. Concentrations of essential and toxic trace elements in rice varied significantly from location to location. Mean concentrations (mg kg−1 as dry weight) of essential trace elements were found in the following order - Zn>Mn>Cu>Fe>Mo>Se>Co - and were within their maximum allowable limits. The average concentrations (mg kg−1) of toxic trace elements were as follows: As: 0.17, Cr: 0.18, Ni: 0.55 and Pb: 0.18, while 7% and 40% of the rice samples surpassed, respectively, the EU recommended limits of As and Pb. This study revealed that rice could be a primary exposure pathway of toxic elements, leading to either noncarcinogenic or carcinogenic health problems for daily rice consumers. The non-carcinogenic health risk was mainly associated with As which contributed 77% to the hazard index. The carcinogenic risk measured as incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) was high (>10−4) with As, Cr and Ni, while Pb showed a moderate (<10−4) carcinogenic risk to adults. Rice can substantially be contaminated by trace elements other than As with potential human health risks. Consequently, regular monitoring of the marketed rice grain is demanded, backed up by viable mitigation strategies for reducing toxic elements uptake by rice grains.
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•Concentrations of essential and toxic elements in rice from Bangladeshi markets.•7% and 40% of rice surpassed the EU limits of inorganic As and Pb, respectively.•Rice can be an exposure route for As, Cr, Ni, and Pb to Bangladeshi inhabitants.•Non-carcinogenic health risk from rice was mainly associated with As.•Carcinogenic risk was high (> 10−4) for As, Cr and Ni from rice consumption.
A field experiment was conducted in medium fertile soil at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh during November 2017 to April 2018 in Rabi season with a view to evaluate the ...performance of wheat varieties under different weed control methods. The experiment was carried out with three varieties i.e. BARI Gom-28, BARI Gom-29 and BARI Gom-30 in the main plot and five weed management methods viz. control (no weeding), two hand weeding at 20 and 40 DAS, Panida 33EC (Pendimethalin) @ 2000 ml ha-1 at 5 DAS pre-emergence, Afinity 50.75WP (Isoproturon) 1500 g ha-1 at 25 DAS as post-emergence herbicide and Panida 33EC (Pendimethalin) @ 2000 ml ha-1 at 5 DAS + Afinity 50.75WP (Isoproturon)1500 g ha-1 at 25 DAS in the sub plot in split plot design. Nine different major weed species were found in the field such as Cynodon dactylon, Cyperus rotundus, Echinochloa colonum, Eleusine indica, Chenopodium album, Alternanthera philoxeroides, Brassica kaber, Leliotropium indicum, Vicia sativa. Results reveled that BARI Gom-30 contributed the highest grain yield 3.01 tha-1. Pre-emergence application of Panida 33EC controlled weeds significantly which showed highest growth followed by yield achieved in wheat. BARI Gom-30 in combination with Panida 33EC produced the highest grain yield 3.52 tha-1 while the lowest grain yield 2.09 t ha-1 was obtained from BARI Gom-28 with no weeding treatment. Results reveled that Panida 33EC (pre-emergence) was found more effective to controlling weeds in wheat. Results of the study finally reveled that Panida 33EC might be considered as a feasible option for combating weed and ensuring higher yield in wheat cultivation.
Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are beneficial bacteria that colonize plant roots and enhance plant growth by a wide variety of mechanisms. Ten isolates of bacteria designated as SS01, ...SS02, SS03, SS04, SS05, SS06, SS07, SS08, SS09 and SS10 were successfully isolated and morphologically and biochemically characterized. Subsequently to investigate the effect of PGPR isolates on the growth of chickpea, a pot culture experiment was conducted in 2013 at National Institute Biotechnology, Bangladesh net house. Prior to seeds grown in plastic pots, seeds were treated with PGPR isolates and seedlings were harvested after 21 days of inoculation. All the isolates were gram negative in reaction, catalase positive, produced indole acetic acid (IAA) as well as performed phosphate solubilization, able to degrade cellulose and have the adaptability in wide range of temperature and showed positive growth pattern in medium. Most of isolates resulted in a significant increasing of shoot length, root length and dry matter production of shoot and root of chickpea seedlings. Application of PGPR isolates significantly improves the percentage of seed germination under saline conditions. The present study, therefore suggested that the use of PGPR isolates SS04, SS10 and SS08 as inoculants biofertilizers might be beneficial for chickpea cultivation in saline conditionRes. Agric., Livest. Fish.3(1): 105-113, April 2016
Tomatoes are the most widely grown crop in the world, and they may be found in a variety of forms in every kitchen, regardless of cuisine. It is, after potato and sweet potato, the most widely farmed ...crop on the planet. Cotton is another essential cash crop because most farmers grow it in huge quantities. However, many diseases reduce the quality and quantity of tomato and cotton crops, resulting in a significant loss in production and productivity. It is critical to detect these disorders at an early stage of diagnosis. The purpose of this work is to categorize 14 classes for both cotton and tomato crops, with 12 diseased classes and two healthy classes using a deep learning-based lightweight 2D CNN architecture and to implement the model in an android application named "Plant Disease Classifier" for smartphone-assisted plant disease diagnosis system, the results of the experiments reveal that the proposed model outperforms the pre-trained models VGG16, VGG19 and InceptionV3 despite having fewer parameters. With slightly larger parameters than MobileNet and MobileNetV2, proposed model also attains considerably larger accuracy than these models. The classification accuracy varies between 57% and 92% for these models, and the proposed model's average accuracy is 97.36%. Also, the precision, recall, F1-score of the proposed model is 97 % and Area Under Curve (AUC) score of the model is 99.9% which is an indicator of the very good performance of the model. Class activation maps were shown using the Gradient Weighted Class Activation Mapping (Grad-CAM) technique to visually explain the disease detected by the proposed model, and a heatmap was produced to indicate the responsible region for classification. The app works very impressively and classified the correct disease in a shorter period of time of about 4.84 ms due to the lightweight nature of the model.
Numerous epidemic lung diseases such as COVID-19, tuberculosis (TB), and pneumonia have spread over the world, killing millions of people. Medical specialists have experienced challenges in correctly ...identifying these diseases due to their subtle differences in Chest X-ray images (CXR). To assist the medical experts, this study proposed a computer-aided lung illness identification method based on the CXR images. For the first time, 17 different forms of lung disorders were considered and the study was divided into six trials with each containing two, two, three, four, fourteen, and seventeen different forms of lung disorders. The proposed framework combined robust feature extraction capabilities of a lightweight parallel convolutional neural network (CNN) with the classification abilities of the extreme learning machine algorithm named CNN-ELM. An optimistic accuracy of 90.92% and an area under the curve (AUC) of 96.93% was achieved when 17 classes were classified side by side. It also accurately identified COVID-19 and TB with 99.37% and 99.98% accuracy, respectively, in 0.996 microseconds for a single image. Additionally, the current results also demonstrated that the framework could outperform the existing state-of-the-art (SOTA) models. On top of that, a secondary conclusion drawn from this study was that the prospective framework retained its effectiveness over a range of real-world environments, including balanced-unbalanced or large-small datasets, large multiclass or simple binary class, and high- or low-resolution images. A prototype Android App was also developed to establish the potential of the framework in real-life implementation.