Study of Nitrate content and the effective factors on it in the cucumbers of Jiroft area

The vegetables with high amount of Nitrate have a lot of detrimental effects on the human and animal health. The high amount of Nitrate results in some diseases such as Stomach cancer, Leukemia, cancer of the lymphatic nodes or NHL (Non-Hodgkin lymphoma), blue body syndrome, diarrhea and other gastrointestinal diseases in human. Since 80% of Nitrate enters the human body by vegetables the measurement of Nitrate and the investigation of affecting factors on its accumulation in vegetables are of crucial importance especially at areas with high consumption of vegetables.
The objectives of the present study were monitoring the Nitrate amount in green cucumber and the most effective factors on it.
Overally, 210 samples were collected and analyzed from different farmlands of Jiroft city during one sowing season. The Nitrate content of the samples was measured by Salicylic acid and spectrophotometry method.
The results showed that the average of Nitrate content in the collected samples is 112.12 mg/wet kg and 29 samples (13% out of 210 samples) have Nitrate concentration higher than standard level. Moreover, it was revealed that the factors such as type of planting, irrigation, soil, fertilizer, harvest season, age of sample, temperature, weather, sampling location in the farm, distance between bushes, weeds and farmer financial status have direct influence on the Nitrate content of the green cucumber in Jiroft area.
It can be concluded that different factors are affecting on the Nitrate accumulation in the cucumber and a healthy product with standard Nitrate content can be produced by considering the studied factors in this work.