Determination of Heavy Metals and Bacterial Count of Some Frequently Consumed Spices in Jordan

Background: Many factors contribute to the contamination of spices with heavy metals and bacteria including fertilizers, soil contamination and source of irrigation water. Methods: In this study, four spices already consumed in Jordan (cinnamon, black pepper, cubeb “allspice” and nutmeg) were investigated regarding heavy metals and bacterial contents. India and China (as Asian origin) as well as United States of America (as North American Origin) and Brazil (as South American origin) were considered as the main producers and exporters of spices for most countries of the world as Jordan. Results: results indicated that (Fe) element was came in the first ordered as a major investigated one in Indian nutmeg. Black pepper came as a predominant one in Indian black pepper contrary to that of Chinese one which had (Mn) element as a predominant. (Mn) is the major element in Chinese cubeb, but Indian cubeb contained (Fe) as a major element. It could be detected iron metal (Fe) as the highest heavy metal in either Indian or Chinese cinnamon. By calculating the total heavy metals content, it could be ascendingly ordered the investigated Asian spices as: Chinese cubeb, Chinese nutmeg, Chinese black pepper, Indian cinnamon, Indian cubeb, Indian nutmeg, Indian black pepper and Chinese cinnamon. Three of Chinese spices, i.e., cubeb, nutmeg and black pepper came in the first order considering their total heavy metals content. Meanwhile, in the second order Indian spices (cinnamon, cubeb and nutmeg) was coming with moderate total heavy metals content. The highest level of total heavy metals (over 9 ppm) was detected in both of Indian black pepper and Chinese. Regarding to the total content of heavy metals in four investigated American spices, black pepper possesses the lowest level of total heavy metals and meanwhile the highest level was found in American cubeb. Cubeb and nutmeg contain iron with 1.9 times higher than that of cinnamon spice. In the second order (Mn) element showed a similar trend. It is interested to notice that all of spices in this study had approximately the same level of (Pb) metal. The total heavy metals content in investigated Brazilian spices, black pepper possessed the highest. While cinnamon had the lowest. Three of heavy metals (As, Ti and Li) were also not detected in Brazilian spices similar to those of American ones. As a general trend, black pepper spice either imported from Asian (China and India) or American (USA and Brazil) origin had the highest bacterial count, meanwhile, the lowest count was detected in nutmeg spice imported from the same origins.