IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/aesjfr/405072.html

Metal Concentration in Commonly Used Medicinal Herbs and Infusion by Lebanese Population: Health Impact

Author

Listed:
  • Korfali, Samira
  • Mroueh, Mohamad
  • Al-Zein, Mohammad
  • Salem, Rosin

Abstract

The levels of K, Ca, Fe, Zn, Cu, Mn, Pb, As, Cd, Cr, and Pb in commonly used medicinal herbs and their infusions by Lebanese were analyzed by EDXRF and ASS techniques, respectively. The order of metal contents in the herbs was found to be: K (6990-19850 ug/g) > Ca(1630-14450 ug/g) > Fe(80-3650 ug/g) > Mn (28-458 ug/g) > Zn (23-108 ug/g) > Cu (5-71 ug/g) > Cr (3.1-55 ug/g) Pb> (1.1-10.3 ug/g) > As (nd-10.8 ug/g) > Cd (nd-1.7 ug/g). The mean levels of toxic metals in herbs Pb, As and Cd were below WHO permissible levels. Cluster analysis indicated metals are most probably in plants due to wastes disposal and irrigation with contaminated wastes and/or from atmospheric waste particulates. The levels of Mn, Cr, Pb and As in herbal infusions were found to be higher in soaked than boiled preparations and correlated with Fe, while Zn and Cu levels were higher in boiled infusions. The highest weekly intake from herbal infusions of toxic metals Cr (492.8 ug), As (77.0 ug), Pb (291.2 ug) and Cd (19.0 ug) were below the recommended permissible tolerable weekly intake respectively 1260 ug, 900 ug, 1500 ug, and 150 ug. Therefore, the consumption of these traditional medicinal herbs does not pose any health risk provided full compliance with recommended daily doses.

Suggested Citation

  • Korfali, Samira & Mroueh, Mohamad & Al-Zein, Mohammad & Salem, Rosin, 2013. "Metal Concentration in Commonly Used Medicinal Herbs and Infusion by Lebanese Population: Health Impact," Journal of Food Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 2(2).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aesjfr:405072
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/405072/files/24426-86620-1-PB.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Renée Street & Jiřina Száková & Ondřej Drábek & Lenka Mládková, 2006. "The status of micronutrients (Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn) in tea and tea infusions in selected samples imported to the Czech Republic," Czech Journal of Food Sciences, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 24(2), pages 62-71.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Veronika ZEMANOVÁ & Kateřina BŘENDOVÁ & Daniela PAVLÍKOVÁ & Pavla KUBÁTOVÁ & Pavel TLUSTOŠ, 2017. "Effect of biochar application on the content of nutrients (Ca, Fe, K, Mg, Na, P) and amino acids in subsequently growing spinach and mustard," Plant, Soil and Environment, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 63(7), pages 322-327.
    2. T. Veselý & P. Tlustoš & J. Száková, 2011. "Organic salts enhanced soil risk elements leaching and bioaccumulation in Pistia stratiotes," Plant, Soil and Environment, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 57(4), pages 166-172.
    3. K. Břendová & P. Tlustoš & J. Száková, 2015. "Biochar immobilizes cadmium and zinc and improves phytoextraction potential of willow plants on extremely contaminated soil," Plant, Soil and Environment, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 61(7), pages 303-308.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:aesjfr:405072. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.ccsenet.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.