Macro- and microelement content and health risk assessment of heavy metals in various herbs of Iran

Human health risk assessment of potentially toxic and essential elements in medicinal plants consumed in Zabol, Iran, using the Monte Carlo simulation method

Medicinal plants (MPs) have long been used for their therapeutic properties in traditional forms of medicine. However, the presence of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in MPs raises concerns about their safety, efficacy, and potential adverse effects on human health. The current study aimed to determine the level of potentially toxic and essential elements (PTEEs) in commonly consumed MPs in Zabol, Iran, along with their health risk assessments. To conduct the present study, 10 types of MPs widely used in Zabol, Iran, were selected, and 15 samples of each type (150 samples in total) were taken. Each sample was analyzed for the presence of various PTEEs using Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) for Lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), chrome (Cr), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), aluminum (Al) and manganese (Mn); and Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS) for arsenic (As) and mercury (Hg). Finally, to better comprehend the scope of exposure and its possible effects, the Monte Carlo simulation method is successfully applied to assess human health risks related to PTEs in MPs. Statistical analysis revealed statistically significant (P < 0.001) variations in PTE averages among MP types. Furthermore, all samples' overall PTE mean concentration (range: 0.18 to 215.5 µg/kg) was below the World Health Organization's (WHO) regulatory standards. Probabilistic health risks, including non-carcinogenic-target hazard quotient (THQ) for each element, total target hazard quotient (TTHQ) for all elements, and carcinogenic-incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) for each element, and total carcinogenic risk (TCR) for all elements, were significantly lower than the acceptable limit for children and adults. Accordingly, it can be said that consuming MPs sold in Zabol is safe for children and adults regarding carcinogenic (ILCR/TCR = 10- 4) and non-carcinogenic (THQ/TTHQ = 1) effects. In light of the findings presented here, and to our understanding, the primary factor contributing to lower levels of PTEs in MPs in Zabol City markets is the cultivation of plants in nonindustrialized areas, separate from urban and industrial zones. This practice keeps them from environmental contaminations, including soil quality and water sources. It is recommended that it is essential to regulate the sources that enhance the transfer of PTEs and other harmful pollutants from surroundings to the soil and, consequently, MPs. It is also suggested that, like chemical drugs, MPs should undergo rigorous testing by quality control agencies before being made available to the market.

Heavy metals in spices and herbs from worldwide markets: A systematic review and health risk assessment

Culinary spices and herbs, renowned for their flavor, aroma, and medicinal properties, contain essential nutrients but also may pose health concerns due to heavy metal contamination. This systematic review, in accordance with PRISMA guidelines, investigates the global concentrations of heavy metals in culinary spices and herbs, and evaluates associated health risks. Fifty peer-reviewed studies from Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science were examined and findings revealed variations in heavy metal content based on country of origin and spice type. In the MENA region, caraway and green cardamom from Bahrain had high levels of Pb (2.2 μg/g) and Cd (0.9 μg/g). Indian spices like cloves and Ajwain seeds exhibited high levels of iron (17.87 ± 8 mg/kg) and calcium (1353 ± 10 mg/kg). African and European spices showed regional disparities, with some exceeding permissible Pb and Cd limits. Non-carcinogenic human health risk assessments via oral exposure pathway conducted on reported Cd, Ni, and Cu concentrations throughout the reviewed global studies revealed no risks across all regions and for all spices and herbs under study except in Turkey for Cd levels found in chamomile with hazard quotients ranging between 1.26 and 1.47. On the other hand, carcinogenic risks varied based on reported Pb concentrations, ranging from 8.5 × 10-8 to a maximum of 4.96 × 10-3. These findings underscore the need for global vigilance in food safety practices and future research in countries with less stringent policies. Recommendations include improved agricultural practices, enhanced soil management, and stringent post-harvest procedures to mitigate contamination.

Unveiling antibiotic contamination in surface water: A study of the Huaihe River Basin's Huaibei Plain, a significant Chinese herbal medicine planting region

The abuse of antibiotics has caused the accumulation of antibiotic residues in environmental media, threatening the ecosystem and human health. Many studies on the distribution of aqueous antibiotics have been reported. However, the pollution status of antibiotics in the environment in Chinese herbal medicine planting areas is rarely comprehensively clarified, resulting in the lack of updated pollution data and conducive suggestions for ecological cultivation and sustainable development of Chinese herbal medicine. Thus, we comprehensively investigated the distribution, profiles, sources, and risks of the antibiotics in the surface water of an important tributary of the Huaihe River Basin, located in Bozhou City, a significant Chinese herbal medicine planting region. Solid-phase extraction coupled with an ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometer (SPE-UPLC-MS) was utilized to detect the antibiotics in the water. 27 kinds of antibiotics were identified with total concentrations ranging from 75.01 to 1737.99 ng·L-1, with doxycycline (DC) and doxycycline hydrochloride (DCH) possessed the highest concentration. And DC, DCH, oxilinic acid (OA), sulfamethoxazole (SMZ), clarithromycin (CLA), and roxithromycinum (ROX) were the main antibiotics detected in this basin. Correlation analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) indicated that animal husbandry was the primary source of antibiotics. Furthermore, the ecological risk assessment revealed that certain antibiotics could seriously threaten the survival of aquatic organisms, implying that local Chinese herbal medicines might be at similar growth risk. The drinking risk assessment showed that antibiotics in the water posed low risks for human, and children faced a greater drinking risk than adults. The study can help to facilitate the management of aqueous antibiotic pollution for the ecological cultivation and safe production of Chinese herbal medicine.

Multi-elemental composition of botanical preparations and probabilistic evaluation of toxic metals and metalloids intake upon dietary exposure

The aim of this study was to evaluate the inorganic elemental composition (49 elements) of 29 botanical preparations obtained from fruits, leaves, peels, seeds, roots, fungi, and spirulina by using inductively coupled-mass spectrometry and a mercury analyzer. Simultaneously, the risk associated with the chronic dietary exposure to 12 toxic metals and metalloids among the European population was evaluated by using a probabilistic approach based on Monte Carlo simulations. The analysis revealed worrying intake levels of Al, As, and Ni, primarily stemming from the consumption of spirulina-, peel-, and leaf-based botanicals by younger age groups. The intake of As from all analyzed botanicals posed a significant risk for infants, yielding margins of exposure (MOEs) below 1, while those deriving from peel-based botanicals raised concerns across all age groups (MOEs = 0.04-2.3). The consumption of peel-based botanicals contributed substantially (13-130%) also to the tolerable daily intake of Ni for infants, toddlers, and children, while that of spirulina-based botanicals raised concerns related to Al intake also among adults, contributing to 11-176% of the tolerable weekly intake of this element. The findings achieved underscore the importance of implementing a monitoring framework to address chemical contamination of botanicals, thus ensuring their safety for regular consumers.

Lead Exposure of Four Biologically Important Common Branded and Non-branded Spices: Relative Analysis and Health Implication

Technological advances and socioeconomic development of Bangladesh are leading to the best choice between branded and non-branded powdered spices. But toxic metal issues can be another factor to elect them. So lead (Pb) exposure and its consequence on the human body for these two categories of four common spices have been ascertained here. A validated laboratory method using hot plate digestion and flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS) has been used for that. The obtained mean concentration of Pb in branded and non-branded spice powders followed the decreasing order of turmeric > coriander > red chili > cumin powder and turmeric > red chili > cumin > coriander powder, respectively, where, in any analysis mode, the non-branded items are potentially ahead of Pb exposure. The market-based mean concentration between these two categories was not a significant difference (t-test). Approximately 90% of the spice samples have shown within the maximum allowable limit by Bangladesh Standard. The sum of estimated daily intake indicated that most of the city market (67%) for non-branded items and some branded (33%) samples have crossed the maximum tolerable daily intake (> 0.21 mg/kg). So, the human health risk assumption for the inhabitant of studied areas suggests there is no significant level of risk for them due to the consumption of spices regarding non-carcinogenic risk factor (THQ and total THQ) and carcinogenic risk factor (CR). But the development of a quality control process for loose spice powders as well as toxic metal screening from raw materials to finish products urgently needed and continuous monitoring with identifying the source of toxic metal is highly recommended.

Analysis of Minerals and Toxic Elements in Commonly Consumed Herbal Medicines in Zahedan, Iran, and Associated Human Health Risk Assessment

ABSTRACT

Herbal medicines (HMDs) are widely used in some countries. However, a consumer's health may be threatened when pollutants are present in HMDs and a high quantity of these medications is consumed. This work was conducted to evaluate the accumulation of toxic elements and the potential human health risks associated with high consumption of HMDs in Zahedan, Iran. In this study, 15 brands of popular HMDs were selected from five pharmacies. In each pharmacy, three HMD samples were randomly chosen, for a total of 225 samples, and evaluated for 11 elements. Inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry was used to analyze cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), and aluminum (Al) in each sample. Total arsenic (As) and mercury (Hg) were measured by atomic absorption spectrometry. The human health risk of each element from ingestion of each HMD was estimated. The mean concentrations of these elements in different types of HMDs were highly variable and significantly different within the same type of HMD (P < 0.001). All samples contained detectable concentrations of target elements. However, the mean concentrations of each element in all HMDs were significantly lower than the legal limit published by the World Health Organization. The outcomes of this work indicated that for both children and adults, the target hazard quotient (THQ) for each metal and the hazard index (HI) for all metals in all types of HMDs were significantly lower than the acceptable limit (THQ and HI = 1). The incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) for each carcinogenic metal and the total carcinogenic risk (TCR) for all carcinogenic metals also were lower than the acceptable limit (ILCR and TCR = 10-4).

HIGHLIGHTS

Estimation of heavy metal concentrations (Cd and Pb) in plant leaves using optimal spectral indicators and artificial neural networks

The necessity of continuously monitoring the agricultural products in terms of their health has enforced the development of rapid, low-cost, and non-destructive monitoring solutions. Heavy metal contamination of the plants is known as a source of health threats that are made by their proximities with pollutant soil, water, and air. In this paper, a method was proposed to measure lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) contamination of plant leaves through field spectrometry as a low-cost solution for continuous monitoring. The study area was Mahneshan county of Zanjan province in Iran with rich heavy metal mines that have more potential for plant contamination. At first, we collected different plant samples throughout the study area and measured the Pb and Cd concentrations using ICP-AES, in which we observed that the concentrations of Pb and Cd are in the range of 1.4 ~ 282.6 and 0.3 ~ 66.7 μgg-1, respectively, and then we tried to find the optimum estimator model through a multi-objective version of genetic algorithm (GA) optimization that finds simultaneously the structure of an artificial neural network and its input features. The features extracted from the raw spectrums have been collimated to be compatible with the Sentinel-2 multispectral bands for the possibility of further developments. The results demonstrate the efficiency of the optimum estimator model in estimation of the leaves' Pb and Cd contamination, irrespective of the plant type, which has reached the R2 of 0.99 and 0.85 for Pb and Cd, respectively. Additionally, the results suggested that the 783-, 842-, and 865-nm spectral bands, which are similar to the 7, 8, and 8a sentinel-2 spectral bands, are more efficient for this purpose.

Studies on the chemical composition of plants used in traditional medicine in Congo

The knowledge of the chemical composition of herbs used medicinally in Africa is relatively low, and at the same time, the growing interest in alternative medicine prompts scientists to search for justification for the use of various plants. Due to these, the aim of the study was to analyze ten botanical species of medicinal plants originating from Congo to determine the contents of non-metals (P, Se), metallic elements (Cu, Zn, Fe, Mn, Ca, Mg, Na, K, Cd, Pb, Cr, Co, Al), phenolic compounds, and L(+) ascorbic acid and antioxidant activities. To prepare plant samples for quantitative analysis by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS) and inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy, the microwave digestion was applied. The contents of phenolic acids, flavonoids, polyphenolic compounds, and vitamin C were assayed in extracts of medicinal plants spectrophotometrically, while the antioxidant activity was determined by ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl-hydrate (DPPH), and 2,2 -Azino-bis-3-ethylbanzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS) techniques. The studies showed that the medicinal plants from Congo differed to a high degree. Principal component analysis demonstrated that the concentrations of Cu, Fe, Mn, and also phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity had the highest impact on sample’s differentiation. The relationship between the type of plant material (bark, root, or leaf) and its chemical composition was noticed, too.

Trace elements in commonly used medicinal plants from Varna region, Bulgaria

In this study, we assessed the concentrations of some trace and toxic elements (Cd, Pb, Zn, Cu, Ni, Cr, Fe, and Mn) in traditionally used wild medicinal plants: chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla), white yarrow (Achillea millefolium), linden (Tilia sp.), and elder (Sambucus nigra L.) collected from urban and rural region near Varna, Bulgaria. Concentrations of examined elements were determined by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) after sample mineralization. The samples were digested with concentrated nitric acid in a microwave system. Mean element levels in medicinal herbs were established in decreasing order as follows: Fe > Mn > Zn ≈ Cu > Pb > Ni > Cr > Cd. The content of toxic elements in medicinal herbs was found significantly higher in areas with intensive traffic compared with a suburban area. Instead discrimination between metal content in rural and urban samples was confirmed by PCA. Concentrations of toxic elements Cd and Pb in all plant species from the rural region were found in the range from not detected to 0.08 and 0.796 ng/kg, respectively and were below the permissible limit of the WHO.

Health risk assessment of Macro, Trace-elements and heavy metal in various Indian Antidiabetic Polyherbal formulations

Diabetes mellitus, a global pandemic, can be holistically managed with the use of polyherbal formulations which is an accessible form of treatment in developing countries due to fewer side effects, economical and easily available. Commercial polyherbal formulation lacks systemic based scientific study, thus it is suspected to be associated with many contaminations and related toxicities, one of which is considered to be elemental health hazards. Therefore, the present study is designed to assess six selected antidiabetic polyherbal formulations from the Indian market for their element contents, quality, and health risk assessment. Concentrations of 35 essential and non-essential trace-elements were quantified by Handheld X-ray spectrophotometer and health risk assessment was calculated by estimated daily intake (EDI) and Total hazard quotient (THQ). Elements were found to be in a vast range of concentration in the tested APH. Among the 35 elements analyzed, Ca (23100±0.033ppm) and K (14800±0.021 ppm) in "MH" and Zn (15600±0.025 ppm) in "DB" were found to be the highest. The lowest concentrations of Rb and Nb (3±2 ppm) were observed in the formulation "MH" and "SN" respectively. THQ of all the elements was calculated to be less than unity except for Rb in the formulation "MA". Rb is rarely associated with toxicities as it is rapidly excreted in sweat and urine. V, Co, Ni, Cu, As, Se, Y, Ag, Sn, Sb, Ba, W, and Hg were absent in all the APH. Therefore the present study indicated the presence of essential elements some of which are important for the management of diabetes and hence can be considered safe for use.

The Safety Assessment of Toxic Metals in Commonly Used Herbs, Spices, Tea, and Coffee in Poland

The presented study was aimed at the determination of the level of contamination with heavy metals (Cd, Pb, As, and Hg) in 240 samples of plant materials, i.e., herbal raw materials, spices, tea, and coffee. Moreover, a probabilistic risk assessment (noncarcinogenic and carcinogenic risks) was estimated by models including target hazard quotient (THQ) and cancer risk (CR). The samples were subjected to microwave mineralisation with the use of HNO₃ (65%), while the determination of the content of the elements was performed with the use of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP–MS) and a mercury analyser. The element which was characterised by the highest level of accumulation in the analysed samples was lead (from 0.010 to 5.680 mg/kg). Among the heavy metals under analysis, the lowest concentration was noted in the case of mercury (from 0.005 to 0.030 mg/kg). A notably higher level of contamination with heavy metals was noted in the analysed samples of herbs and spices (0.005–5.680 mg/kg), compared to samples of tea and coffee (0.005–0.791 mg/kg). According to the guidelines of the World Health Organisation (WHO) concerning the limits of contamination of samples of herbal raw materials with heavy metals, lead levels exceeding the limits were only noted in 24 samples of herbs (18%). In all of the analysed samples of spices, tea, and coffee, no instances of exceeded limits were noted for any of the analysed heavy metals. The values of TTHQmax (in relation to the consumption of the analysed products) were as follows: up to 4.23 × 10⁻² for spices, up to 2.51 × 10⁻¹ for herbs, up to 4.03 × 10⁻² for China tea, and up to 1.25 × 10⁻¹ for roasted coffee beans. As the value of THQ ≤1, there is no probability of the appearance of undesirable effects related to the consumption of the analysed group of raw materials and products of plant origin. The CR value for As (max. value) was 1.29 × 10⁻⁵, which is lower than the maximum acceptable level of 1 × 10⁻⁴ suggested by United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA).

Macro and Trace Elements in Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) Cultivated in Greece: Risk Assessment of Toxic Elements

The accumulation of hazardous contaminants in Cannabis sativa L. raises warning signs regarding possible adverse effects on human health due to the consumption of herbal medicines and/or other herbal edible products made from cannabis. Thus, there is an urge to investigate the levels of hazardous contaminants, such as heavy metals, in cannabis plant. In the present study, 29 macro and trace elements, including both beneficial and toxic elements (heavy metals and metalloids), were investigated in 90 samples of Cannabis sativa L. collected from Greece. According to the results, the detected concentrations of macro elements in the leaves/flowers of cannabis ranged between 28 and 138,378 ppm, and of trace elements between 0.002 and 1352.904 ppm. Although the concentrations of elements varied among the samples, their accumulation pattern was found to be similar, with the contribution of toxic elements to the total concentration of trace elements being below 1%. The detected levels of the most toxic elements were below the prescribed limits established by the WHO, while the calculated THQ and CR values showed no risk (non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic) for the population exposed to the current cannabis samples. Positive correlation between the concentration of elements and cannabis geographical origin and variety was observed. Cannabis leaves/flowers were more contaminated with trace and macro elements than seeds.