Heavy Metal Contamination of Ready-to-use Herbal Remedies in South Eastern Nigeria

Authors

  • Chris O. Nwoko Department of Environmental Technology, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria
  • Leo Mgbeahuruike Department of Environmental Technology, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3923/pjn.2011.959.964

Keywords:

Contamination, heavy metals, herbal remedies, Nigeria

Abstract

The Zn, Cd and Pb content of selected ready-to-use herbal remedies in Southeast Nigeria were determined by Atomic Absorption spectrophotometer (Model 2380 Perkine Elmer Inc., Norwalk, CT, USA) after acid digestion with 5:1:1 HNO3: HClO4: H2SO4. The concentration levels of Pb, Cd were generally high and above the safe limits set by WHO/FAO. Only Tunya B.fil, Virgy virgy worm expeller and Sekin powder had Zn concentrations above international safe limits representing 20% of the tested herbal remedies. The consumers of these herbal products are inadvertently exposed to heavy metal poisoning. It is important that regulators should intensify efforts to minimize human exposure risk.

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Published

15.09.2011

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 10 (2011)

Section

Research Article

License

Copyright (c) 2011 Asian Network for Scientific Information

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

How to Cite

Nwoko, C. O., & Mgbeahuruike, L. (2011). Heavy Metal Contamination of Ready-to-use Herbal Remedies in South Eastern Nigeria. Pakistan Journal of Nutrition, 10(10), 959–964. https://doi.org/10.3923/pjn.2011.959.964