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Intertidal gastropods, Faunus ater (F. ater), were collected from four sampling sites in Peninsular Malaysia. It was found that the concentrations of Zinc (Zn) (mg/kg dry weight) ranged from 347.23 to 356.21 for Digestive Caecum (DC), 95.00 to 100.91 for foot, 102.73 to 109.00 for muscle, 42.73 to 177.72 for operculum, 87.57 to 161.76 for remainder, and 24.42 to 53.96 for shell of F. ater. Current results indicate that the intertidal waters of Pantai Sri Tujoh has a higher bioavailability of Zn and require further research. According to the current findings, F. ater may be employed as a biomonitor of Zn pollution and bioavailability.

Monitoring the level of metal pollution in a water body, especially in polluted areas, is crucial. Gastropod shells have been used as a biomonitor for metal pollution. The goal of this study was to evaluate the utilisation of the mudflat snails, Telescopium telescopium shells, as biomonitoring materials for nickel (Ni) pollution in the intertidal area. The snails and their habitat surface sediments were sampled from 17 sites in Peninsular Malaysia. Up to 21 individuals from each site were sampled and dissected. In addition to the shells, six parts of the soft tissues (cephalic tentacle, foot, gill, muscle, mantle, and remaining soft tissues) were analysed for Ni. The snail shell was found to be a potential biomonitoring material for Ni pollution based on four positive points: (i) higher value of shell/soft tissue ratios (> 1.00); (ii) categorisation as a ‘microconcentrator’ based on bioaccumulation factor; (iii) significant correlation coefficients (at least P < 0.05) and significant influential total Ni levels in the sediments to the shell Ni; and (iv) higher precision of Ni in the shells based on the lowest value of the coefficient of variation of Ni. The described results indicated that the shell of T. telescopium would be suitable for assessing Ni pollution in the intertidal areas.

Biomonitoring of heavy metals is an important part of the ecotoxicological study. However, without the application of the metal data to reflect human wellbeing, it is considered the low impact on the society. In this study, the heavy metals in green mustard Brassica rapa var. parachinensis were collected from Sikamat (Negeri Sembilan in 2013), Kg. Sitiawan (Perak in 2016), and Ara Kuda (Penang in 2016) of Peninsular Malaysia, were determined. The samples are analyzed for the concentrations of Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, and Zn by using the flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer. For the leafy edible part, the metal concentrations (mg/kg dry weight) ranged from 16.1-18.5 for Cu, 145-207 for Fe, 1.02-1.64 for Ni, 0.90-2.73 for Pb, and 74.0-203 for Zn. These metal data were assessed for human health risks. It was found that all the values of target hazard quotients for Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, and Zn in both adults and children were less than 1.00. This exhibited there were no non-carcinogenic risks of the five metals through the intake of the Brassica from the present study. This could indicate that the accumulation of metals and pollution threshold is below the limit of causing hazardous effects to consumers. Nonetheless, regular assessment of health risks of heavy metals in this vegetable needs to be conducted from time to time these vegetables are prone to continuous heavy metal contamination.

There are many biomonitoring studies of nickel in the mollusks, but to understand how the nickel is accumulated in the human body and the health risk posed by the metal is not a straightforward formula. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to draw a conceptual model of nickel content in the bodies of invertebrate mollusks and their gastrointestinal absorption of nickel. This model is useful to understand how nickel accumulation in the tissues of the mollusks could affect the nickel oral ingestion pathways. This conceptual model can shed some light on the mechanisms of nickel that may cause various toxicological risks and target cancer slope formulation in the future.

Human health risk and phytoremediation of potentially toxic metals (PTMs) in the edible vegetables have been widely discussed recently. This study aimed to determine the concentrations of four PTMs, namely Cd, Fe, Ni, and Zn) in

In this study, the green-lipped mussels Perna viridis were collected from a high activity sampling at Senibong in the Straits of Johore and two relatively clean sites with fish aquacultural activity at Bagan Tiang (Perak) and Sg. Semerak (Kelantan). The mussels were dissected by gender into byssus, crystalline style, foot, gill, gonad, mantle and muscle.

The present study aims to determine the concentrations of Cd, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, and Zn in the different tissues of five species of tropical intertidal gastropods from Malaysia. Each of the species have organs/tissues that highly accumulated certain metals. For Cu, the mantles of Cerithidea obtusa, Pugilina cochlidium, and Murex trapa; and the digestive caeca of Thais sp. and Chicoreus capucinus highly accumulated Cu. The shells of Chi. capucinus and M. trapa, the digestive caeca of P. cochlidium, and the digestive glands of Thais sp. and Chi. capucinus highly accumulated Cd. The tentacles and the digestive caeca of Cer. obtusa and P. cochlidium, respectively, highly accumulated Zn, the digestive glands of Thais sp., Chi. capucinus, and M. trapa also highly accumulated Zn. The shells of most of the gastropods accumulated high levels of Pb and Ni. The opercula of most of the gastropods, besides the digestive glands for Thais sp., accumulated high levels of Fe. The present study on interspecific variations of ...

Multivariate analysis including correlation, multiple stepwise linear regression, and cluster analyses were applied to investigate the heavy metal concentrations (Cd, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, and Zn) in the different parts of bivalves and gastropods. It was also aimed to distinguish statistically the differences between the marine bivalves and the gastropods with regards to the accumulation of heavy metals in the different tissues. The different parts of four species of bivalves and four species of gastropods were obtained and analyzed for heavy metals. The multivariate analyses were then applied on the data. From the multivariate analyses conducted, there were correlations found between the soft tissues of bivalves and gastropods, but none was found between the shells and the soft tissues of most of the molluscs (except for Cerithidea obtusa and Puglina cochlidium). The significant correlations (P < 0.05) found between the soft tissues were further complemented by the multiple stepwise linear regressions where heavy metals in the total soft tissues were influenced by the accumulation in the different types of soft tissues. The present study found that the distributions of heavy metals in the different parts of molluscs were related to their feeding habits and living habitats. The statistical approaches proposed in this study are recommended for use in biomonitoring studies, since multivariate analyses can reduce the cost and time involved in identifying an effective tissue to monitor the heavy metal(s) bioavailability and contamination in tropical coastal waters.

Pomacea insularum were collected from polluted and unpolluted freshwater ecosystems in Malaysia. Besides the shells, the soft tissues were dissected and pooled into cephalic tentacle, foot, mantle, operculum, digestive tract, penial sac, lung sac, and remainder. These tissues were analyzed for the concentrations of Cu, Cd, Fe, Ni, and Zn. The present work resulted in three interesting findings. First, the concentrations of Cu, Cd, Fe, and Zn found in most of the different parts of P. insularum collected from the polluted Juru River were significantly (P < 0.05) higher than those found in the snails from the other four sites. Second, positive and significant correlation coefficients were found for sediment-lung sac for Cd, Fe, and Zn while sediment-digestive tract for Cu. These correlation results indicated that lung sacs could reflect the environmental concentrations of Cd, Fe, and Zn, while the digestive tract could do the same for Cu. Third, the different concentrations of heavy metals found in the diff...

The concentrations of Cd, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb and Zn in the different parts of six bivalves species were determined. From the study conducted, it was found that the byssus of Perna viridis, Scpharca broughtonii and Trisidos kiyonoi; the gill of Polymesoda erosa and Donax faba; and the foot of Gelonia expansa were highly accumulative of Cu. High levels of Cd were found in the gills of Scpharca broughtonii and the byssus of Trisidos kiyonoi; and also the shells of the four remaining bivalve species. As for Zn, the mantles of P. erosa and T. kiyonoi, and the gills of D. faba, G. expansa and S. broughtonii were highly accumulative of Zn. High level of Pb and Ni were found in the shells of all the species which indicated that the shells of the bivalves were highly accumulative of Pb and Ni. Elevated levels of Fe however were found in the different parts of the bivalve since Fe is an essential metal in metabolic activities and an abundant element in nature. The heavy metals in the total tissues and the different soft tissues of the bivalves were compared with the maximum permissible limits set by five different countries. From the comparison, it was found that most of the bivalves contained metal concentrations which were below the maximum permissible limits and should pose no toxicological risk to consumers.

In this study, the patterns of the distributions and redistributions of heavy metals in the different soft tissues of Perna viridis were determined. Crystalline style and muscle were found to be sensitive organs to pollution as evidenced by total disturbances in the patterns of metal occurrences. The present findings confirmed the use of different soft tissues as an effective way of monitoring the status of metal pollution in tropical coastal waters. Therefore, the distribution of metals in different parts of P. viridis is proposed as a good indicator of metal pollution in tropical coastal waters.

Green-lipped mussels, Perna viridis, were collected from the eastern and western parts of the Johore Straits in September 2004 and January 2005. Based on the heavy metal concentrations in the different soft tissues (gonad, foot, mantle, gills, muscle, and remaining soft tissues) of these mussel samples, the eastern part of the Johore Straits (which is divided into two portions by a causeway), recorded higher levels of bioavailability and contamination by Cd, Cu, Fe, Ni, and Zn when compared to the western part, while Kg. Pasir Puteh in the eastern part was found to record the highest bioavailability and contamination by heavy metals. The use of different soft tissues of P. viridis as biomonitors of bioavailability and contamination by Cd, Cu, Fe, Pb, Ni, and Zn in the semi-enclosed Johore Straits is proposed, since erroneous results due to spawning and the problem of defecation before dissection could be overcome. Hence, a more accurate interpretation of the bioavailability and contamination by heavy meta...