Table 3.
The statistics of heavy metal concentrations in coix seeds.
| Element | Min a
(mg/kg) |
Max (mg/kg) |
Mean | CV (%) | Chinese Standard (CSGB) |
Chinese Pharmacopoeia (CP) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Limit (mg/kg) |
EN | Limit (mg/kg) |
EN | |||||
| Cd | 0.0005 | 0.0575 | 0.0021 b ± 0.0062 | 291.46 | 0.1 | 0 | 1.0 | 0 |
| Hg | 0.0010 | 0.0010 | 0.0010 b ± 0.0000 | 0.00 | 0.02 | 0 | 0.2 | 0 |
| As | 0.0017 | 0.3880 | 0.0138 b ± 0.0361 | 262.19 | 0.5 | 0 | 2.0 | 0 |
| Cr | 0.0150 | 1.3000 | 0.1107 a ± 0.1879 | 169.71 | 1.0 | 3 | - | 0 |
| Pb | 0.0050 | 0.0520 | 0.0069 b ± 0.0062 | 89.94 | 0.2 | 0 | 5.0 | 0 |
Key: a Target analyses with concentrations lower than detection limit were treated as one-half of detection limit when calculating the mean and minimum values. Mean concentrations of different heavy metals in coix seed with different letters are significantly different (p < 0.05). CV, coefficient of variation; EN, exceeding the standard number.