Health risk assessment of heavy metals via consumption of contaminated Herbal medicine collected from local Egyptian pharmacies

Abstract

Medicinal plants have a long history of use in therapy throughout the world and still make an important part of traditional medicine. Thus, medicinal plants and herbal products must be safe for the patient (consumer). However, owing to the nature and sources of herbal medicines, they are sometimes contaminated with toxic heavy metals such as lead, arsenic, mercury and cadmium thus poses a potential health threat to consumers. Unregulated procurement coupled with the unhygienic trading environment, poor postharvest handling and processing; represent major routes of heavy metal contamination in medicinal plant products. Thus, the aim of this study is to assess the levels of heavy metal contamination in some frequently used Egyptian medicinal plants and its health risks by the amount of heavy metals: Chromium (Cr), Cobalt (Co), Copper (Cu), Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn), Nickel (Ni), Zinc (Zn), Tin (Sn), Cadmium (Cd), Lead (Pb), and Antimony (Sb) that they contain. This will be possible by using the ICP – OES technique in order to determining the heavy metal levels in each type of herbal drugs and then compare the results to the APTWI standards. The results showed that the elements that were found in 100% of the samples analyzed were Iron (Fe) and Manganese (Mn). Iron (Fe) has the highest mean concentration in all the samples with the highest being; 42.1123 mg/kg for drugs used for constipation and digestion for children <1 year; Manganese is the second element with the highest mean concentration in all the samples with the highest being; 4.0852 mg/kg for drugs used for constipation and digestion for children <1 year. When the results were compared with the APTWI, the results showed a significant heavy metal contamination that will cause serious health effects for pediatrics.