Skip to main content

Profiling of heavy metal and pesticide residues in medicinal plants

Environmental Science and Pollution Research volume 25, pages 29505–29510 (2018)Cite this article

Abstract

Application of medicinal plant to cure ailments has been practiced by several civilizations. Nowadays, contamination of heavy metals and pesticide residues in medicinal plant is a serious concern, due to toxic effects on human health. The present study was designed with an aim to quantify the heavy metals and pesticide residues in the 20 medicinal herbs, frequently sold in the local market as raw material without any quality assurance. The concentrations of the elements are as follows: copper (2.42–19.14 μgg−1), cadmium (0.01–2.10 μgg−1), chromium (17.63–58.63 μgg−1), iron (7.61–322.6 μgg−1), and lead (13.00–54.47 μgg−1), whereas total metal concentration ranged between 44.73 and 385.15 μgg−1. Among the organic pesticides, HCH (1.63–6.44 μgg−1) and DDT (0.63–7.14 μgg−1) isomers were found to be present in medicinal plant material. Result showed that lead and chromium concentrations in the herbs were above the permissible limits set by WHO. These herbs should be regularly checked for quality assurance before using raw or as a herbal formulation to avoid chronic exposure of metal and pesticides to human being.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

43,34 €

Price includes VAT (Finland)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

References

  • Anna F, Marzanna K, Edward S (2015) Determination of toxic metals by ICP-MS in Asiatic and European medicinal plants and dietary supplements. J Trace Elem Med Biol 30:54–58

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arpadjan S, Celik G, Taskesen S, Gucen S (2008) Arsenic, cadmium and lead in medicinal herbs and their fractionation. Food Chem Toxicol 46:2871–2875

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bodeker C, Bodeker G, Ong CK, Grundy CK, Burford G, Shein K (2005) WHO global atlas of traditional, complementary and alternative medicine. World Health Organization, Geneva

    Google Scholar 

  • Chauhan R, Awasthi S, Singh AP, Srivastava S, Pande V, Tripathi RD, Kumar A (2017) Heavy metal tolerance in crop plants: physiological and biochemical aspect. In: Shukla V et al (eds) Plant adaptation strategies in changing environment. Springer Nature, Singapore, pp 253–268. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6744-0_11

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Dimitrova Z (1999) The history of pharmacy. St Clement of Ohrid, Sofija, pp 13–26

    Google Scholar 

  • Duruibe JO, Ogwuegbu MOC, Egwurugwu JN (2007) Heavy metal pollution and human biotoxic effects. Int J Physical Sci 2(5):112–118

    Google Scholar 

  • Govindaraghvan S, Nikolaus JS (2015) Quality assessment of medicinal herbs and their extracts: Criteria and prerequisites for consistent safety and efficacy of herbal medicines. Epilepsy Behav 52:363–371

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haider S, Naithani V, Barthwal J, Kakkar P (2004) Heavy metal content in some therapeutically important medicinal plants. Bull Environ ContamToxicol 72:119–127

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hellawell JM (1988) Toxic substances in river and streams. Environ Pollut 50:61–85

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khan CS, Cao Q, Zheng YM, Huang YZ, Zhu YG (2008) Health risks of heavy metals in contaminated soils and food crops irrigated with wastewater in Beijing, China. Environ Pollut 152(3):686–692

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khatoon H, Pant A, Rai JPN (2017) Plant adaptation to recalcitrant chemicals. In: Shukla V et al (eds) Plant adaptation strategies in changing environment. Springer Nature, Singapore, pp 269–290. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6744-0_11

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Kishan PS, Bhattacharya S, Sharma P (2014) American-Eurasian assessment of heavy metal contents of some Indian medicinal plants. J Agric Environ Sci 14(10):1125–1129

    Google Scholar 

  • Kumar N, Kumar S, Bauddh K, Dwivedi N, Shukla P, Singh DP, Barman SC (2015) Toxicity assessment and accumulation of metals in radish irrigated with battery manufacturing industry effluent. Int J Veg Sci 00:1–13

    Google Scholar 

  • Kumar D, Bharti SK, Anand S, Kumar N (2018) Bioaccumulation and biochemical responses of Vetiveria zizanioides grown under cadmium and copper stresses. Environ Sustain 1:133–139. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42398-018-0009-z

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kunle OF, Egharevba HO, Ahmadu PO (2012) Standardization of herbal medicines: a review. Int J Biodivers Conserv 4(3):101–112

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lasat MM, Fuhrman M, Ebbs SD, Cornish JE, Kochian LV (1998) Phytoremediation of radiocesium-contaminated soil: evaluation of cesium-137 bioaccumulation in the shoots of three plant species. J Environ Qual 27(1):165–169

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  • McLachlan MS, Horstmann M (1998) Forests as filters of airborne organic pollutants. Environ Sci Technol 32:413–420

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mishra C, Sharma S, Kakkar P (2007) A study to evaluate heavy metals and organochlorine pesticide residue in Zingiber officinalerosc. collected from different ecological zones of India. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 79:95–98

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neha KD, ShuklaP KS, Bauddh K, Tiwari J, Dwivedi N, Barman SC, Singh DP, Kumar N (2017) Metal distribution in the sediments, water and naturally occurring macrophytes in the river Gomti, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. Curr Sci 113(8):1578–1585

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olowoyo JO, Okedeyi OO, Mkolo NM, Lion GN, Mdakane STR (2012) Uptake and translocation of heavy metals by medicinal plants growing around a waste dump site in Pretoria, South Africa. South Afr J Bot 78:116–121

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Orisakwe OE, Nduka JK, Amadi CN, Dike D, Obialor OO (2012) Evaluation of potential dietary toxicity of heavy metals of vegetables. J Environ Anal Toxicol 2(3):136–139

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ouyang Y (2002) Phytoremediation of modeling plant uptake and contaminant transport in the soil plant atmosphere continuum. J Hydrol 266(1–2):66–82

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Petrovska BB (2012) Historical review of medicinal plants’ usage. Pharmacogn Rev 6(11):1–5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reinholds I, Pugajeva I, Bavrins K, Kuckovska G, Bartkevics V (2017) Mycotoxins, pesticides and toxic metals in commercial spices and herbs. Food Addit Contam Part B 10(1):5–14

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rodriguesa AAZ, De Queiroz MELR, De Oliveira AF, Heleno AAFF, Zambolim L, Freitasa JF, Morais EHC (2017) Pesticide residue removal in classic domestic processing of tomato and its effects on product quality J Environ Sci Health Part B :1–8

  • Shaban NS, Abdou KA, Hassan NEY (2016) Impact of toxic heavy metals and pesticideresidues in herbal products. Beni-Suef Uni J Basic Appl Sci 5:102–106

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Srivastava SK, Rai V, Srivastava M, Rawat AKS, Mehrotra S (2006a) Stimation of heavy metals in different Berberis species and its market samples. Environ Monit Assess 16(1–3):315–320

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Srivastava LP, Kumar N, Gupta KP, Raizada RB (2006b) Status of HCH residues in Indian medicinal plant materials. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 76:782–790

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Srogi K, Włochowicz A, Szczepanik K (2002) Determination of heavy metal contents in samples of medicinal herbs. Pol J Environ Stud 11(5):467–471

    Google Scholar 

  • Verma P, George KV, Singh HV, Singh RN (2007) Modeling cadmium accumulation in radish, carrot, spinach and cabbage. Appl Math Model 31(8):1652–1661

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wiart C (2006) Etnopharmacology of medicinal plants. Humana Press, New Jersey, pp 1–50

    Google Scholar 

  • World Health Organization (2007) WHO guidelines for assessing quality of herbal medicines quality of herbal medicines with reference to contaminants and residues. Geneva

  • Ziarati P (2012) Determination of some heavy metals in popular medicinal plants of Tehran’s market. J Pharma Health Sci 1(3):31–36

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank The Head, Department of Environmental Science, BBAU, Lucknow, India, for providing infrastructural support.

Author information

Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Science, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow, 226025, India

    Narendra Kumar, Mahiya Kulsoom, Vertika Shukla, Dhananjay Kumar &  Priyanka

  2. Center for Environmental Sciences, School of Earth Sciences, Central University of Jharkhand, Brambe, Ranchi, Jharkhand, 8352 05, India

    Sanjeev Kumar

  3. Department of Environmental Science, Asian Institute of Public Health, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India

    Jaya Tiwari

  4. Department of Environmental Science, Sri Aurobindo College, University of Delhi, New Delhi, 110017, India

    Neetu Dwivedi

Authors
  1. Narendra Kumar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mahiya Kulsoom
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Vertika Shukla
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Dhananjay Kumar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Priyanka
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Sanjeev Kumar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Jaya Tiwari
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Neetu Dwivedi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Narendra Kumar.

Additional information

Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kumar, N., Kulsoom, M., Shukla, V. et al. Profiling of heavy metal and pesticide residues in medicinal plants. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 29505–29510 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2993-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2993-z

Keywords

  • Bioaccumulation
  • DDT
  • Metal
  • Medicinal plants
  • Pesticide residues