Department of Chemistry, Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur, Sindh, Pakistan.
National Centre of Excellence in Analytical Chemistry, University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan.
Biol Trace Elem Res. 2021 Jun;199(6):2366-2374. doi: 10.1007/s12011-020-02339-w. Epub 2020 Aug 15.
Herbal medicines are widely consumed by the people of Pakistan for the treatment of various diseases. In the current study, quantitative assessment of four heavy metals namely zinc, lead, chromium, and cobalt was carried out in forty commonly consumed herbal medicines purchased from the markets of Khairpur and Sukkur, Pakistan. The conventional wet acid digestion method was used for the dissolution of samples and the concentration of heavy metals was determined by using flame atomic absorption spectrometry. Varied concentrations of metals were observed in different herbal medicines. The levels of Zn, Pb, Cr, and Co were in the range of 7.05-87.5 ppm, 5.62-44.9 ppm, 3.16-14.1 ppm, and 5.69-9.88 ppm, respectively. The findings of our study were compared with the WHO maximum permissible limits of these metals and it was observed that most of the analyzed samples exceeded the permissible levels. Keeping in view the levels of these metals in the selected herbal medicines, the prolonged intake of these drugs might be hazardous for human beings.
草药在巴基斯坦被广泛用于治疗各种疾病。在目前的研究中，对从巴基斯坦海得拉巴和苏库尔市场购买的四十种常用草药中的四种重金属（锌、铅、铬和钴）进行了定量评估。采用传统的湿酸消解法溶解样品，并用火焰原子吸收光谱法测定重金属的浓度。不同的草药中观察到不同浓度的金属。Zn、Pb、Cr 和 Co 的浓度范围分别为 7.05-87.5ppm、5.62-44.9ppm、3.16-14.1ppm 和 5.69-9.88ppm。我们的研究结果与世界卫生组织（WHO）对这些金属的最大允许限量进行了比较，结果发现，大多数分析样品超过了允许水平。考虑到所选草药中这些金属的含量，如果长期摄入这些药物，可能对人类健康有害。
