Lead and iron contents in parsley being cultivated in the area of Chrzanów geochemical anomaly

Abstract

Selected research polygon is located in Trzebinia commune in the mid of the 80 km way from Kraków to Katowice (the Upper Silesia capital). The towns of Trzebinia, Chrzanów within the towns of Krzeszowice, Jaworzno, Mysłowice, have been creating a base of well-connected Kraków-Upper Silesia agglomeration. The inhabitants of Trzebinia commune are flexible on labour market, often commute to work in Kraków or Katowice. They have detached houses with gardens of one or two acres size, where »home-made«, fresh, low-processed food could be produced. At the same time the area of Trzebinia Community belongs to Chrzanów geochemical anomaly, which is reflected in high values of cadmium, lead and zinc contents in the soils. This is the result of both natural and anthropogenic factors. The purpose of the paper was to evaluate lead and iron contents in roots and leaves of parsley being cultivated within the area of the anomaly. Considering, there is a positive geochemical anomaly, the lead contents in soil were low - the average value was 88.67 mg kg$^{-1}$ d.m. and only two contents -218.98 and 119.35 exceeded 100 mg kg$^{-1}$ d.m. On the other hand the lead contents in parsley roots were high, many times higher than the allowable values. The lead contents in parsley leaves were also high. Phytoaccumulation indices low, only one had the average value, but at their minimal range (1.02 and 10.3 adequately for leaves and roots). Translocation index of lead was close to one. The iron contents in soils were not high and fall within the scope of low and average ranges that occur in Polish soils. The iron contents in leaves were high, attractive from nutrition point of view.