Mukherjee Susmita, Chatterjee Nivedita, Sircar Asmeeta, Maikap Shimantika, Singh Abhilasha, Acharyya Sudeshna, Paul Sonali
Department of Biotechnology, University of Engineering and Management, Kolkata, India.
Appl Biochem Biotechnol. 2023 Apr;195(4):2483-2518. doi: 10.1007/s12010-022-03938-0. Epub 2022 Apr 30.
Popularity of herbal drugs has always been in high demand, but recently it has been increasing all over the world, especially in India, because of the lower range of adverse health effects as compared to synthetic or man-made drugs. Not only this but their cost-effectiveness and easy availability to the poor people and the masses, particularly in developing countries, are major causes for their demand. But there lies a huge problem during the process of plant collection that affects their medicinal properties to certain degrees. This is caused by heavy metal toxicity in soil in different locations of the Indian subcontinent. This was correlated with their potential to cause health damage. Exposure of humans to heavy metals includes diverse pathways from food to water to consumption and inhalation of polluted air to permanent damage to exposed skin and even by occupational exposure at workplaces. As we can understand, the main mechanisms of heavy metal toxicity include the production of free radicals to affect the host by oxidative stress, damaging biological molecules such as enzymes, proteins, lipids, and even nucleic acids and finally damaging DNA which is the fastest way to carcinogenesis and in addition, neurotoxicity. Therefore, in this paper, we have researched how the plants/herbs are affected due to heavy metal deposition in their habitat and how it can lead to serious clinical complications.
草药一直广受欢迎且需求旺盛，而近来在全球尤其是印度，其需求不断增长，这是因为与合成或人造药物相比，草药对健康产生的不良影响范围较小。不仅如此，它们的成本效益以及对穷人及大众（特别是在发展中国家）而言易于获取，是其需求增长的主要原因。但在植物采集过程中存在一个大问题，在一定程度上影响了它们的药用特性。这是由印度次大陆不同地区土壤中的重金属毒性导致的。这与它们造成健康损害的可能性相关。人类接触重金属的途径多种多样，从食物到水，从食用和吸入受污染的空气到对暴露皮肤造成永久性损害，甚至包括工作场所的职业暴露。如我们所知，重金属毒性的主要机制包括通过氧化应激产生自由基来影响宿主，损害生物分子如酶、蛋白质、脂质甚至核酸，最终损害DNA，这是致癌的最快途径，此外还包括神经毒性。因此，在本文中，我们研究了植物/草药因其栖息地的重金属沉积而受到怎样的影响，以及这如何导致严重的临床并发症。
