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Investigative study on 210Po activity concentration in naturally grown medicinal herbs

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Abstract

Among various naturally grown-medicinal herbs investigated, the estimated natural radioactivity content of 210Po is found to be the highest in the leaves of Colocasia esculenta (70.4 ± 6.4 Bq kg−1) and the lowest in the roots of tree Aegle marmelos (3.6 ± 0.5 Bq kg−1). Leaves of medicinal herbs, due to their comparatively large surface areas, registered higher 210Po activity content as compared to fruits, barks, seeds, rhizomes and roots. The activity content of 210Po observed in the leaves could be correlated with their mean surface area with a correlation coefficient of 0.84. Since the uptake of 210Po activity by the roots is essentially from soil alone, the roots of the herbs registered the lowest transfer factor for 210Po activity content. This comprehensive study reveals that the effective dose that would annually be received by the members of public due to intake of 210Po through consumption of medicinal herbs is found to be far less than the recommended annual permissible limit of 1 mSv by ICRP (2007).

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Acknowledgements

The author thanked Dr. Vmeenakshi Sundaram, former Head Radiation Safety section, Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam and Dr.S.Selvasekarapandian, former Professor, Materials Science Laboratory, Coimbatore for their continued support and encouragement throughout this work. The cooperation and assistance provided by administration, co faculty members of GS department are gratefully acknowledged.

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  1. Department of General Studies, Jubail University College, Jubail Industrial City, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

    R. Sivakumar

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Sivakumar, R. Investigative study on 210Po activity concentration in naturally grown medicinal herbs. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 330, 657–666 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-021-08022-1

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