Element Concentration of Trapa Natans Used for Biomonitoring and Human Consumptions

Abstract

Water chestnut (Trapa natans) is a seasonally harvested aquatic food plant with valuable nutritional and ecological benefits in Sierra Leone. Iron deficiency anaemia is common in approximately 60% of children under 5 years old, while widespread contamination from artisanal mining, agricultural runoff, and urban wastewater is increasingly threatening the safety of wild-harvested foods. The elemental chemistry of T. natans cotyledon tissue was investigated at six sampling stations in a shallow eutrophic lake in eastern Hungary, serving as a meteorological proxy for West African wetland systems under similar environmental pressure.