Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences1028-88801812-5735Asian Network for Scientific Information10.3923/pjbs.2013.332.338AktaruzzamanM. FakhruddinA.N.M. ChowdhuryM.A.Z. FardousZ. AlamM.K. 72013167Accumulation of heavy metals in environmental matrices is a potential risk to living system due to their uptake by plants and subsequent introduction into the food chain. A study was conducted to investigate the heavy metals concentration in soils and leafy vegetables samples along the Dhaka Aricha Road to assess their potential ecological risk. Heavy metals concentration was analyzed by Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy. Concentrations of all the tested heavy metals except Cd in soil samples were below the permissible level. The mean concentration of Cd was found 3.99±1.85 mg kg-1. Concentrations of all the tested heavy metals except Cd and Cr in vegetables samples were lower than recommended level. Mean concentration of Cd and Cr were found 1.00 ± 0.68 mg kg-1 and 2.32±0.84 mg kg-1, respectively. Based on the Potential Ecological Risk Index, Cd posed very high risk to the local ecosystem due to its higher Risk Factor, >320 and based on Transfer Factor of Pb and Cd were found higher accumulator among the tested metals. The results of present study revealed that the bioconcentration of heavy metals along the Dhaka Aricha Road posed high risk to the ecosystem. Considering the Transfer Factor of Cd and Pb it can be suggested that plants and leafy vegetables grow in the soil near Dhaka Aricha Road should not be used as food or feed.]]>Alam, M.G.M., E.T. Snow and A. Tanaka, 20033088396Al Jassir, M.S., A. Shaker and M.A. Khaliq,20057510201027Allen, S.E., H.M. Grimshaw and A.P. Rowland,19861986pp: 285-344pp: 285-344Arai, S.,200288S139S143Aruleba, J.O. and A.S. Ajayi,20122256264Demirezen, D. and A. Aksoy,200629252265Censi, P., S.E. Spoto, F. Saiano, M. Sprovieri and S. Mazzola et al.,20066411671176Fytianos, K., G. Katsianis, P. Triantafyllou and G. Zachariadis,200167423430Gupta, N., D.K. Khan and S.C. Santra,200880115118Naser, H.M., N.C. Shil, N.U. Mahmud, M.H. Rashid and K.M. Hossain,200934545554Hakanson, L.,1980149751001Ho, I.B. and K.M. Tai,1988493751Li, X.D., C.S. Poon and P.S. Liu,20011613611368Ahmad, J.U. and M.A. Goni,2010166347357Kachenko, A.G. and B. Singh,2006169101123Lokeshwari, H. and G.T. Chandrappa,200691622627Mmolawa, K.B., A.S. Likuku and G.K. Gaboutloeloe,20115186196Pekey, H.,20065211971208Qadir, M., A. Ghafoor, G. Murtaza, M. Sadiq and M.K. Rasheed,19994597102Rattan, R.K., S.P. Datta, P.K. Chhonkar, K. Suribabu and A.K. Singh,2005109310322Sharma, R.K., M. Agrawal and F. Marshall,200766258266Shi, G., Z. Chen, S. Xu, J. Zhang, L. Wang, C. Bi and J. Teng,2008156251260Zurera, G., B. Estrada, F. Rincon and R. Pozo,198738805812